


Just Passing Through

by VividlyLost



Series: Crossing [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Arguing, Fighting, Fluff, I will mark any possible dirty chapters with an asterisk, Im pissing myself off, Jealousy, Lack of self worth, Loss of a family member, Possible smut, Possible violence, Romance, Sans is a doof, Swearing, UF, UT, Underfell, Will add more tags as I go, decent amounts of the bad words, frisk talks, good and bad things, happy things, idk why you care, ignoring the problem, multiverse theories, personal HC of characters, reader doesn't take no shit, reader has short hair, reader is female, sad things, undertale - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-16
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-01 09:54:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 36,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10919433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VividlyLost/pseuds/VividlyLost
Summary: Years after the barrier fell and monsters returned to the surface something happened.  The idea of multiple universes and dimensions isn't foreign too you, but when two dimensions get too close to each other monsters start swapping places with their counterparts for short time periods.  What happens when the monsters from Underfell suddenly find themselves in your world and your friends find themselves in a much darker realm than their own.





	1. Chapter 1

It’s been a few years since the barrier fell and monsters re-entered the world.  The uproar was insane, humans from all over the world took to the streets and the internet, mostly the internet, to voice their opinions on the situation.  You couldn’t help but notice that the outcry against the monsters came mainly from the older generations, the ones who barely had the capacity to believe that anyone different from them deserved any sort of rights.  It didn’t surprise you that most of the people you knew, the ones that were closer to your age, and even younger than you, were excited and incredibly welcoming to the monsters.  You yourself were a little concerned, there were already so few monsters compared to the amount of humans swarming the planet it wasn’t like they could defend themselves from harassment either physical or emotional against the world without some repercussions.   Monsters weren’t even allowed to use their magic against humans or else they would be prosecuted.  Not like threat of prosecution ever stopped one human for pulling a weapon on another one but there wasn’t anything you could do about that.  From your experience, your first hand experience, the monsters were all incredibly sweet, even the ones who were crotchety were still kind and it was like a breath of fresh air.

 

You grew up at the base of Mt. Ebott in a city that greatly resembled a town that had burst its confines over the generations.  The center of town had grown into a hub for the younger crowd, a mix of the historic and the late night scene for the college students.  The way your grandparents tell it, once the University opened the town just blew up, almost literally.  People came from everywhere, Ebott University was the closest secondary school this part of the state and its location and surroundings, nearly untouched countryside and mountain ranges, drew many renowned professors who in turn drew many students.  From there it was history, the town grew and burst its carefully crafted grid-like layout and now sprawled in a confusing mess of modern and historic structures.  If you hadn’t grown up in this city you would likely be glued to your gps maps, thankful that there were decent cell towers all the way out here.  Still, growing up anywhere and not really leaving kind of left you feeling stale.  You knew most of the people your age who didn’t leave and the ones you cared about had all moved on.  Finances what they were for you you were thankful that the pull of the University  had drawn a large variety of companies to the city so finding a job you wanted post-college wasn’t as difficult as you had feared. Although maybe you had just gotten lucky.  

 

Once the monsters had entered the city, everything that you found stale about it suddenly melted away and just as quickly as the university builds new and pointless class buildings, a new neighborhood was developed for the monsters at the furthest point of the city.  You learned that the monsters were given a choice of where to build their new home and it seemed as if they were trying to locate themselves as far from the mountain as possible.  The government, begrudgingly built an embassy near the town hall for the King of the monsters and their young human ambassador who you learned was named Frisk.  Working so close to the embassy you often saw the child running in and out of the building with various monsters, the more common of them being a goat woman you took to be Queen Toriel if rumor served correctly.  Every time you saw the young ambassador you couldn’t help smiling, so much joy radiated from them it was almost contagious.

 

Shortly after the embassy building was built you saw businesses spring up that seemed to be run by monsters which drew more monsters towards the center of town.  The appeal of monsters as a whole wasn’t lost on you, being able to speak to people who were truly curious and kind, who visually stunned you every time you saw them, and who were more open than nearly any human you had met before in your life made you excited to go to work in the mornings.  For the first time in your life you wanted to meet new people, you wanted to talk to strangers and to learn more about this world you lived in.  

Your closest human friends had moved away at the close of their college career and you had a terrible time remembering to message them online, but now instead of living inside the neutrality of your day to day life you were making an effort to leave your apartment and be a part of society.  It wasn’t like you were the purest human in the world, hell you swore like it was a part of your vocabulary and you were never one to back down from a dirty joke.  You were prone to irritability, especially when things were out of your control or you were dealing with a particularly trying human, maybe you were always a bit more angry than you should have been but the more time you spent with monsters the less you noticed having those days where every small thing irritated you and the more you laughed.  Not that you were an emotionally devoid person there were plenty of things that you enjoyed, that made you laugh and cry and feel giddy, but you could attribute most of those to things or interactions to the internet, books, films, basically anything removed from your physical life; now there was more.

 

A bar that opened up a few blocks from your work quickly became your favorite place to eat for lunch.  It was quiet compared to the din of most human restaurants, there weren’t any screaming children and you were mostly left alone to your videos or books and the food was fantastic.  It took you a few days of going there to grow accustomed to the sight of a real life elemental, and honestly your only knowledge of elementals came mostly from what you knew of dungeons and dragons so you tried to engage him in conversation.  You learned that Grillby, the monster whose name graced the front of the building, wasn’t much of a talker but he seemed to appreciate your attempts and kept his responses short.  He was very attentive despite being the only one who worked there and you had scarcely finished your food before he was there to remove the plate or top off your drink.  

A day came when you were so engrossed in your current book that you knocked over your drink reaching for it absentmindedly, your water pouring onto the booth and floor around the table.  After a brief second where you registered what had happened Grillby rushed over to see if you needed anything but you were already mopping up the mess with the towel you kept in your bag from your bike rides to work on hot days.  Flustered you tried to wave Grillby off, apologizing for the mess, for crying out loud he was made of fire he shouldn’t be the one to clean up your spilled water.  When the spill was cleaned you gingerly held the damp towel over the table and asked Grillby for a bag you could put it in.  For a moment he just stared at you and when you shifted uncomfortably under his gaze he rushed off to grab one of the take out bags for you.  After that day he seemed glad to have you there for lunch and his responses got just a little bit longer, it made you happy.  When you started packing lunch for work when money got a little tight you took it to Grillby’s to eat and was relieved when he told you it was fine.

You weren’t the only human to go to Grillby’s but there weren’t many people who went during the day and you had never gone in the evenings.  You were usually looking forward to a nap after work so you never really saw how busy it got in there until one day, a really bad day.

 

You had learned earlier that week that a family member had passed away, you spent that day with your parents trying to absorb this information, to not let it get to you, and you were fine but then as the week continued everything just seemed to go wrong,  It wasn’t just one thing that did it, it was one thing on top of a bunch of other things that cracked you.  You barely made it through work that day, but the idea of going home alone, of being alone it kept you at work late and then it walked you to Grillby’s.  You hadn’t really made a lot of friends, if any, to be honest you just met a lot people, a lot of monsters, and you enjoyed their company but it never went beyond passing conversation.  All you wanted though was noise, the feeling of having other people around you whether or not they cared about you.  When you locked your bike out front it was already getting dark and the bar was busy.  You wouldn’t say it was packed but the only space left was at the bar next to a man in a blue jacket.  You walked in, a few humans were strewn about conversing with the monsters a few of which waved at you when you entered so you mustered up a smile and waved back.  

“Hey Grillby”, you said as you approached the bar, the barman looked up from his task at your voice and noticed your faltering smile.

“Are you ok ____?”  He poured you a glass of water like you always had with lunch and you wrapped your hands around the cool glass.  Looking down at the rippling water you shook your head, if you tried to talk about it you were sure you were going to start crying, your face already felt hot.  

“I just, I needed the noise…” your voice trailed off it wasn’t really his problem but you were oddly comforted that he seemed to care.  Not that your coworkers or family didn’t care but in the case of the former they had professional respect for you and for the latter it was an obligated love in the way that as your family they always cared for you and worried about you, but here was someone who didn’t have any sort of ties and it was nice.  His flames flickered lower for a moment and you could tell he was a little worried and it made you smile a little.  Suddenly he looked at the man next to you, “Sans, don’t.”  His voice sounded like a warning and you looked over at the man curiously.  In fact it wasn’t a human man at all, but a skeleton, a skeleman, and he was looking at your curiously with a large smiles plastered to his face.  His eye sockets seemed to move like eyelids and beyond them was darkness that no light seemed to penetrate, small lights you took for pupils shone through them and searched your face.  

“Uh hi?”  His grin widened at your voice and he reached out a hand as if asking for a handshake. “Names Sans.”  Curiously you looked at his hand and then back at him before you released your glass and shook his hand.  Just as your hand closed around his a sharp shock shot up your arm and you realized he had a joke buzzer in on his palm.

“Fuck,” your voice bit out, tight, it was too much, normally you would have laughed a little, maybe been a little irritated at first but all your emotions were jumbled and your body was defensive.  Your throat closed up as you jerked your hand away from him, your face turned red.  It wasn’t his fault, but why, honestly why right now, he didn’t do anything wrong, maybe he was just trying to help.  There wasn’t any reason for you to react like this but you couldn’t stop it.  What was it that did this, how many things over the years built up to today, shoved away because there was no point getting upset over them only to finally be undone by a stupid joke, a joke you normally really enjoyed.  Did the joke upset you, were you in shock, were you angry, were you happy, confused, hurt, affronted?

 

Were you crying?  Yes.

 

“Sans!”  Grillby said sternly looking between the two of you.

“shit, ah f - kid are you ok, aw geez man i’m sorry…” He held his hands up in surrender, his bow creased in concern, he had just wanted to try to make you smile, you looked so sad.  Sans stammered a little more while you tried to swallow your break down enough to speak.

“It’s ok,” you wiped your face with the sleeves of your flannel, the tears refusing to stop.  “It - you didn’t - not your fault -”  The words came out in pieces, your breathing heavy.  You were such an ugly crier, your face would become blotchy, swollen, and red, and your nose would stuff up and run.  Gratefully you took the napkin Grillby offered you and tried to get ahold of yourself, maybe coming here was a bad idea, maybe you should have just gone home.  A soft pat on your shoulder caused you to stiffen briefly and then slump.  Gently the hand began to rub circles into your back and a sigh shuddered out of you.  Eventually, what felt like an hour later you calmed down and the tears stopped, the entire time the hand never stopped rubbing soothing circles into your back.  Heaving a heavy sigh you held the cool glass of water against your hot face and closed your eyes.  You were a mess, you went to a public place just to be a mess, you could laugh at yourself but for some reason you felt better.  The hand that was still on your back, that had helped you through your break down it was a god send.  The one thing you needed but couldn’t ask for.  You looked over at Sans, he had moved his seat closer to yours, his eyes downcast to the bottle of ketchup in his free hand.  He looked up at you with a start and removed his hand from your back, shuffling awkwardly in his seat.

“Thank you… Sans”, you said softly a small smile on your face. “I’m so sorry, I really am.”  You look back at your glass of water and take a drink, your mouth was dry and your throat scratchy.  

“no! its… i’m sorry....” he falters and drags a bony hand over his face.  He jumps when you put your hand on his shoulder.  “Sans, its ok, normally I would have laughed my ass off at a toy buzzer it’s just, well, a lot of bad that built up until… well.”  He didn’t need to hear about your problems, but you tried to reassure him with a smile.  Slowly he smiled back at you and sat a little straighter so you removed your hand and finished off your glass of water.  Grillby had cautiously watched you the entire time, not knowing how to handle this situation but seeing you brighten up made him glad, you were a kind human and you were as considerate as any of the monsters in his bar.  Silently without being asked he walked to the kitchen and returned with your favorite dessert, you ordered it once in awhile with your lunch always exclaiming how much better it was compared to anywhere else you had tried it.  Surprised you looked at him and smiled, “aw Grillby I really-”

“It’s a gift _____, I hope you feel better,” he refilled your glass while he spoke and you smiled wider.  

“It’s sweet Grillby, thank you.”  Laughter bubbled out beside you and you looked, surprised, at Sans.

“Hahahaha, sweet, hahahaha.”  Cocking your head to the side it took you a second to understand what he was laughing at, when you did you giggled a little drawing a look from Sans.

“Dammit man.”  You shook your head and started eating the dessert Grillby had given you.  

“hey, ah kiddo, can i ask what happened?”  Sans looked at you seriously now, his smile smaller and his eye lights dim.  You took another bite of your dessert and debated if you would tell him but when you thought about how he quietly tried to comfort you you didn’t see a reason to deny him.  So you told him.  At first you only meant to tell him the basics but as you started talking, the whole week spilled out of you, the good, the bad, and the heart breaking.  When you finished he sat in silence for a moment before he asked you why you came to Grillby’s then, so you explained that too.  He asked where your friends were and you told him, you answered all his questions you spoke more about yourself than you ever had in years and when you finished you offered him half of your dessert feeling a small spark of shame at having just bared yourself to a stranger.  Why did you do that?

“thanks.”  He took your offered fork and took bite from your plate.  You both sat in comfortable silence which he broke again. “hey, let’s start over, no jokes this time,” he offered you his hand and you shook it, no buzzer and you smiled. “i’m sans.”  You told him your name with a smile.  The rest of the evening you spent talking to Sans and whichever monsters wandered up to him.  It was a content evening and when you left you thanked him and Grillby again, profusely for putting up with you and listening to your problems.  They tried to reassure you that it was fine but you just shook your head and told Grillby you would see him tomorrow as usual and then you went home, enjoying the ride more than you thought you would.

 

A pattern followed after that where you continued to take your lunch break at Grillby’s but you often didn’t find yourself eating alone anymore, much to the neglect of your books.  Sans started to show up on your lunch break telling you that Grillby had informed him of when you took it and he often brough some of his friends with him.  You very quickly met Sans’ brother Papyrus, who then in turn brought along Undyne who then brought along Alphys.  When Papyrus and Undyne joined you for lunch it was a rather raucous event but no matter what kind of day you had been having you always left with more energy than you started with and the day finished quickly after that.  Alphys was a more subdued monster but when she visited you got to enjoy a quiet lunch and she seemed to appreciate having someone she could quietly sit with.  A month after you first met Sans you met Frisk and Toriel and a few days after meeting them you found yourself a very willing escort on some of your days off to the young ambassador around town.  

 

You didn’t like to think of what you life would still be like if you hadn’t gone to Grillby’s that night you broke, you almost couldn’t imagine life being any different than it was now.  Over the next few months you found yourself connecting with more monsters and your evenings became filled with new endeavors.  One day you caught yourself and for the first time in your life you thought a phrase you never thought would actually describe you.  You were happy.  Sure on more than a few occasions you nearly got into fights over your new found friends but it didn’t really bother you, actually the idea of taking a beating spurred you to ask Undyne to teach you how to throw a punch.  And that spawned a whole new level of torture you never thought you would be excited to subject yourself too, and you wouldn’t change a damn thing.

Some nights you would hang with the group watching movies or anime, things they didn’t have below the mountain.  Other nights you would introduce them to video games that you enjoyed no matter if it was single player or not.  Undyne loved the more violent ones and always chose the most buff melee class she could which you wholeheartedly supported.  It was one of these nights that you realized that your friends were almost like family to you and when you absentmindedly mentioned this to Frisk you were surprised by the strength the kid possessed as you were squeezed into a very long hug.  Life was good.

 

But something changed.

 

At what point did you start to notice Sans moods, the almost imperceptible shift from when he was happy to when he got sucked into something you knew you couldn’t help him out of.  The small changes in his eye lights that showed when he was uncomfortable or the fact that he usually drank ketchup in greater quantities when something was bothering him.  So many small things you noticed, and so many more that drew you to him.  He always knew when something was wrong, and he always knew when and what to say to make you smile.  There were many nights that you spent online sending him the worst and the dankest of memes just hoping it would brighten his night. Yet the night you realized this, a night when you were watching a film with the group at Undyne and Alphys’ apartment, and a super sappy song came on and you looked over at Sans and saw the light from the television reflecting softly off of his face.  You saw a small smile on his face and his eyes looked peaceful and then he looked at you and you were _fucked_.  You felt your heart swell into your throat and a giddy feeling fill you up from the inside and all you could do was smile back, glad you weren’t really one to blush.  

Shit.  When did you stop really noticing that he was a skeleton?  It wasn’t something you could actually forget, no matter the the fact that being made of magic he wasn’t quite as realistically defined as a human skeleton and the surface of his body felt like a weird cross between skin, bone, and ceramic.  Honestly it was his skull that differed the most from the skeleton anatomy you were used to but it fit, he fit, he was just … Sans.  He and his brother were unique and spending so much time with them and the rest of monsterkind had desensitized you to the oddities and differences between you all.  This must be what it was like in all the space movies where all the alien races coexisted and no one flinched when they saw anyone of the alien species, and here you were, attracted to a skeleton monster.  It wasn’t like you hadn’t heard of interspecies relationships before, you had heard rumors of at least one or two in the past year but as far as you knew that’s all they were.

 

After the movie ended you walked to the kitchen and leaned against the counter just trying to gather your thoughts.  Was this something you wanted to pursue?  You knew it wouldn’t just go away and from past experiences with anyone that you ever liked, if they ended up in a relationship and you still had feelings for them, especially unexpressed feelings it hurt like hell, but was it worth risking your friendship with Sans?  Wow wasn’t that a cliche as hell conundrum, ‘oh don’t tell the person you like them they might hate you, maybe they won’t, maybe they will just let you down easy’. Bah!  This wasn’t something you could deal with right now, it was already one in the morning and it was never a good idea to go to sleep in wrecked emotional state.  You began to sigh and then jumped.

“Hey punk, what’s up.”  How did Undyne manage to get behind you so quietly?  Laughing at your reaction as you held your hand over your heart in partial mock terror she grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge.  You heard the sounds of the others stirring and getting ready to leave so you looked fervently at Undyne’s face.  

“I need to tell you something, someone something, fuck... I, can I?”  You wrung your hands together and shifted where you stood, something you did when you were pent up.  

“Well I hope you would be able to tell me whatever is bothering you.”  She leaned against the fridge while you tried to put your words together.  It was true, ever since you had asked her to teach you how to throw a punch you guys had become as close as you ever had with any human, maybe even more.  Sure you were really close with the whole group but despite and maybe because of Undyne’s crass nature you two just clicked on a level that made it really easy for you to tell her what was happening now, so you waved her over and made a keep it down motion with your hands.

“I think, well I’m sure … well I mean”

“Come on ____, you’re killing me here out with it!”  her voice barely a whisper as she started to bubble over with excitement at what was obviously a juicy secret.

“I like Sans, ok, I mean I just realized it but I dunno when or how, but fuuuuck Undyne what do I do about this?”  Was it possible for her eyes to get that big?  And would it be in bad form to make a fish joke right now at the way she was just opening and closing her mouth like that?  Probably.  After a moment of tense silence where your words hung in the air between the two of you she grabbed you by both shoulders, dropping the water bottle.  

“Are you KIDDING?!  This is the best shit I’ve heard in ages! Ah man, ok so …”  Then she trailed off, thinking.

“Well how did you tell Alphys?” Undyne grimaced at your question, “A poorly worded letter that I forgot to sign and had Frisk take to her, so she thought Frisk was the one who wrote it.” She shook her head, “It worked out in the end but still, I don’t suggest my methods of courtship punk.”  You extracted an arm from her grip and patted her understandingly on the shoulder. “Still, this is great, you should tell him, just go in there and -”

“tell who what?” You screamed.  It was small, but it was a little more than a yelp, and even Undyne twitched a small amount as you both slowly turned to look at Sans now standing in the doorway to the kitchen.  You gave Undyne a look and she smiled, all of her sharp teeth showing, then she picked up her water bottle and saluted you with it as she left the room.

“Uh,n- noth-nothing.” The words came out in stammers and you looked away from him, your fingers running through your short hair.

“kid?”

“Dammit Sans I’m not a kid,” you laughed to take the edge off of your words, “from what you’ve told me we are about the same age.”

“oh…” He looked at you curiously and scuffed his slipper against the tile, “you’ve never complained before.” All you could do was shrug in response and mentally slap yourself for getting defensive.

“Sorry, it’s nothing.  I need to head home it’s super late and whether or not I’m off tomorrow it’s still a long bike ride home.”  You squeezed past Sans to leave the kitchen and found your shoes and backpack shoved under the couch.  Quietly he followed you, still curious about what was going on.  Usually you told Sans if something was bothering you so he didn’t understand what was going on.  You heard Alphys squeal from across the room and you shot Undyne daggers from your eyes.  Of course she wouldn’t keep it from her girlfriend, but Alphys was gonna have a hard time keeping it from Sans.  Running your hands through your hair again you straightened up to head out bidding the girls and Papyrus a good night.  Sans caught you at the door.

“come on ____ you look a little _two tired_ to ride home tonight, let me give you a lift.”  A smile tugged at your lips and that giddy feeling started to well up inside you again but you shook your head at his joke.

“Alright sure, I actually didn’t wanna have to ride through all the puddles tonight anyway.”  So he walked you out to your bike outside and in a shift of a moment, almost like the feeling you get on an elevator where your stomach tried to catch up to you, you were both standing in your apartment.  You sucked in a breath, “I may never completely get used to that.” You rolled your bike into its usual spot and threw your bag onto the table.  “Thanks Sans.”  He shrugged, “aw it was nothing, just didn’t want you to be all _bonely_ heading home y’know.”

“Yea, if we’d walked with it being so wet outside I could have easily slipped and _fallen_ for …” you stopped talking, yesterday that joke would have made you laugh, you always made jokes like that but now.  Sans blinked, he knew it wasn’t like you to stop halfway through an obvious joke.  The air grew heavy with awkward silence so he made to leave.  “Sans wait.” He stopped and looked at you curiously.  “Fuck” He blinked.  “Ok so question, just hear me out, what is your opinion on y’know monsters and humans having r-relationships?”  There you said it, god was your chest going to explode or collapse on itself?  Why couldn’t you read his expressions right now?  Why were you panicking?  Why wasn’t he saying anything? “Oh nevermind, don’t worry about it. Hahahahahaha.”  Your laugh came out strained and you felt a cold sweat break out on you like you had a fever or were about to faint.

“_____, look at me.”  You looked at Sans, panic displayed clearly on your face and he saw it.  It made him a little sad that you were so worried, but shit if he had known how you felt, if he could just tell you what he had wanted to tell you for months, but the words that came out of his mouth, “i think it’s a great idea honestly, it does a lot to breach the differences between us y’know.  i just never really put a lot of thought into it myself, never wanted to.” _Liar_.  He watched your face fall and kicked himself hard, why couldn’t he just tell you, why was he so hung up  on his own damn issues.  Then he saw your face relax, almost forcefully and he winced.

“Oh that’s cool.”  And you waved him off, “It was just something I was wondering about, still I’m _bone tired_ so you gotta get out, shoo.”  You laughed and it almost sounded real but Sans heard the tightness in your voice and as soon as he teleported back to Papyrus at Undyne’s he just stood outside of their apartment and gently smacked his head against the wall. “what the hell is wrong with me.” It wasn’t a question just a statement he made to the empty street.

 

Undyne had texted your phone as soon as you left but all you could respond with was a half assed response that read somewhere between “I’m shit” and “I fucked up” and came out more like “I’m shit fucked”.  Her response didn’t come for a few minutes and you could almost hear her yelling through the screen about how she was more than happy to knock some sense into Sans for you, you just shook your head and asked her to leave it be.  After all, it seemed like Sans was giving you an out, either he was playing dumb or he was just oblivious but at least you could pretend nothing happened; and for a few weeks it felt like nothing did.  

  
Then something went wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, first fic yea? So let's do this. Feel free to comment your thoughts but keep your comments kind, we are all just here to have fun. And if you have constructive feedback about grammar, formatting, how to write certain reactions, or something that I need to tag about please do so. No one is perfect and I will amend and grow as I can.
> 
> ~~~~~  
> Not every chapter will be the same length as I will write the story as it decides to flow.


	2. Chapter 2

You had gone to Grillby’s after work today, he had told you he was trying out some new menu items that night so you were more than happy to give him your praise, never having had anything short of excellent at his bar.  When you got there you were greeted by Sans and his brother, “______! COME JOIN US WE HAVE PROCURED A TABLE.”  When you reached them Sans slid you a full glass of water, “ _ water  _ you waiting for? already got you covered pal.”  Sitting down you took a sip appreciatively and looked over at Papyrus. “Hey Paps did you hear about the new superhero movie coming out next month?”  He had a great love for the superhero films, often comparing himself ‘THE GREAT PAPYRUS’ to the heros of the films.  You had offered to help him put together one of the costumes for Halloween this year but he still hasn’t decided which one he wants to go as.  As you all sat there lost in the topic of upcoming films you jumped.  For a moment Sans looked completely different, he had looked taller and more feral, in the span of a blink what was blue and white looked red and black but then it was gone and it was just Sans.  The conversation carried on around you but you were staring, something felt wrong.  Sans caught your eyes and shook his head subtly, silently telling you to wait.  Tearing your eyes away you looked around the bar looking for anything that was out of place and over the night you only noticed one thing; towards the close of the evening as Grillby came to collect your plates he momentarily turned purple, but just as with Sans it was gone before you could confirm it.  Yet it was enough, standing abruptly you grabbed Sans by the sleeve of his jacket and tugged him out of the booth. 

“Now.”  Sans waved off Papyrus telling him he would be back in a moment then he followed you out of the bar.  “I’m not crazy Sans what the hell just happened?”  Being away from his brother he finally let his smile shrink, his eyes tightened and his eye lights dimmed. 

“i don’t know, for a second, literally a second, i wasn’t here i don’t know where i was it was, it was wrong.”  He shoved his hands into his pockets and shuffled where he stood.

“Sans it wasn’t just you, Grillby-”

“i saw.”

“We need to talk to him, if he remembers too-”

“and if he doesn’t?”

“Shit Sans I don’t know, you’re the scientist here, call Alphys, call Asgore.  Sans …” You trailed off, remembering the wicked look in his eyes, the red lights. “Sans you weren’t you, you …” Sans looked at you his eyes almost dark, his brow furrowed. “Sans you looked terrifying, what if-”  His eyes were black now and he was shaking slightly, something was terribly wrong.  You made to reach out to him but a pang in your chest made you drop your hand.  “Come on Sans.”  You rushed back inside and found Grillby on his way out from the kitchen.

“Grillby, hey.”  The barman looked at you and Sans curiously.  “A moment ago when you got our plates, did anything happen to you?”  For a heavy moment you and Sans looked at Grillby in anticipation.  

“Now that you mention it, something felt off for a moment but It passed quickly.”  You looked at Sans but he was already gone. 

“Thanks Grillby, uh be careful ok.”  With that you walked over to Papyrus and told him that Sans had to go.  He didn’t pretend to know what was going on and was a little put off at the sudden departure of his brother but when you offered to walk home with him he was ecstatic.  

Walking home with Papyrus meant you rode your bike to keep pace with him and his long legs.  The entire way home you eyed Papyrus, worried he would suddenly turn into someone that wasn’t … Papyrus, but luckily nothing happened.  You didn’t want to worry him about something you couldn’t explain so you didn’t say anything, and it ate at you.  It ate at you until you left Papyrus at home and called Sans.

“Pick up, pick up, pick u--SANS!”  Silence greeted you on the other end of the line so you kept talking. “Sans I walked Papyrus home, tell me what’s going on.  Please.”  More silence.  “Fucks sake Sans, talk to me.”  

“Hey kiddo, thanks for taking Paps home, uh look I’ll explain tomorrow when I get this sorted out ok? So don’t  _ flip a lid _ I’ll  _ ketchup _ with you later.”  After that half hearted joke he hung up, Sans only called you kid when he was distracted and slipped up so you called Alphys.  Alphys was hysterical, Undyne had changed and in the brief moments she wasn’t herself had thrown the couch in what seemed like a confusion induced rage.  Luckily for you their apartment was only a couple blocks from Papyrus and Sans’ so you pedaled over there as fast as you could, ignoring the passing cars that honked at you for being reckless.  When you arrived you locked your bike up slowly trying to catch your breath and then you pounded on their door.  Undyne was normal and was actually trying to right the couch, a swept pile of drywall and dust in the corner, when she saw you she stopped and yanked you into the apartment.  So you told them, you told them what you saw and how upset Sans got, how he just left his brother at the bar with you.  You saw a noticeable shift in Undyne’s stance and for a moment you thought you understood why she used to be the captain of the Royal Guard.  Immediately she called Asgore and you and Alphys drew a little closer together, an almost tangible chill running through the both of you.  Within moments of the call Undyne and Alphys were ushering you back out of the house and you felt yourself being shoved into their car.  When Undyne was pent up with energy she became a very speedy and reckless driver and gave the “Oh Shit” handle a whole new meaning.  

What should have taken twenty minutes on a good day took you only minutes and you found yourself at the embassy building where a very solemn Asgore awaited you.  Fifteen minutes later you were joined by Frisk and Toriel.  But the conversation you all had didn’t really go anywhere.  The only thing you learned was that Frisk had been experiencing a weird sensation whenever they tried to pull up their Options.  That was something you didn’t try to understand.  Frisk said that every time they tried to look at them it felt like there were doubles, like a bad shadow that was stretched way out but had gotten a little closer over the past week.  When asked about why they hadn’t mentioned this before they said they hadn’t wanted to worry anyone until they figured it out.  Frisk didn’t know where Sans was either and you had a bad feeling about this.

The night carried on like this for a long while and eventually you got a ride home, thankful that tomorrow was your day off.  You would need to retrieve your bike from the girls’ place then anyway, it was too late now.

 

You were never more thankful that you had the weekends off of work than you were right now as you hunted down Sans.  No one, not even his brother had heard from him since the previous night and more flashes were happening amongst the monsters, nothing as big as what happened with Undyne yet but everyone was concerned.  Many chalked it up to nightmares as the world they saw when the flashes happened was so much darker than where they were now.  Undyne was helping the royal family run ground control while Alphys worked with Frisk to try to understand what they meant by the doubles, but when Frisk said that Sans might understand you agreed to go find him.  The first few hours of the day you spent hitting up all his little spots the ones he hid from Papyrus and the ones he thought he hid from you, not that you followed him but you weren’t stupid when you saw him out in town by himself in random locations.  Finally when you were dehydrated and the gnawing of your stomach was just beyond bearable you stopped, sitting on your bike, and you called Sans for what felt like the thirtieth time.  He answered.

“Sans I swear to whatever being you fear if you don’t meet me for lunch after I spent all day hunting your ass down I’m going to tell Papyrus who has been trolling him all these years.  Do you hear me Mr. Funnybone?  I’m gonna spill all your dirty little secrets and it will take you a lifetime to get the upperhand ag-”

“those are some pretty empty threats ____, don’t you think?”  Sans said from behind you causing you to jump and your foot to slip off the raised pedal.  You fell tangled in the bike frame and scraping your arm.  “shh--- sorry.”  You detangled yourself and pushed the bike off of you taking his offered hand to help you stand.  

“It’s fine, I’m just glad you came, lame threats or no I----we need you Sans.  So don’t run off again ok?”  He helped you stand your bike up and he walked it for you as you both headed to the nearest food place.

“sorry, i … i had an idea and i needed to check but i still don’t know for sure if i'm right. I only had a few hours.”  

“Seriously?  Well spill ok, you make me spill I make you spill. Out with it.”  You smirked at your little joke and his eyes got a little brighter for a moment but that was it.

“What do you think of the multiverse theory?”  Your brain started to run laps on itself putting pieces together that you didn’t even know if they fit.

“I like it, I like to think somewhere out there there is a version of myself that is a simple potato living out its life with no responsibilities.” Or a version of yourself where Sans reciprocated your feelings.  Sans laughed, an actual laugh and took a deep breath.  

“well ok, what if there was a ‘verse where two ‘verses overlapped?”

“That’s your theory?”

“that’s what i’m pretty sure is happening.”

“Why?”

“there’s some stuff in my old lab that, nevermind it’s a long story,” he looked at you and smiled. “either way, short answer yes that is what i think is going on.”

“You need to talk to Frisk, Sans.”  And you told him about what they said about doubles, but with what he said it all seemed to make sense.  When you arrived at the little diner you’re stomach was growling so loudly that Sans made at least five jokes about it by the time you had both ordered your food.  When it arrived you snatched the ketchup bottle from his hands to squirt some on your fries. Without looking up you offered it back to him with one hand as you started to shovel food in your mouth.  When he didn’t take it you waved it at him, “Take it dude.”

“why the hell would i want that shit?” You dropped the ketchup bottle when you looked up.  Not Sans sat across from you, elbow on the table and chin resting on his hand.  He was leering at you.  

“WHO THE FUCK ARE---SANS?!?!” your heart was pounding, this taller Sans had burning red eye lights and sharp teeth, one of his canines shone in the flourescent lighting and looked like it was gold.  His jacket was red and black and had matted fur around the hood and cuffs.

“you look just like _____ sweetheart,” he laughed.  His voice was deeper and more rough than Sans’ was and the way he looked at you as if he didn’t know whether to undress you or eat you, or both was unsettling.  

“You are not m--- not Sans.”  You slowly ate your food glowering at him from across the booth.

“sure i am but damn,” he looked around appreciatively. “this is a helluva lot nicer than where i just was, and the view is great too.”  His smile widened and his eyes narrowed a little.  

“Fuck off.”  Not Sans looked at you surprised and then started to laugh as if you had just told him the best joke in the world.  He wiped imaginary tears away from his eye sockets and reached for the mustard bottle that was sitting untouched near the window.  “this is a nice change, don’t even have the boss yelling at me right now about slacking off.”

“Don’t drink that,” you reached over to snatch the bottle from him but he held it out of reach and eyed you.

“why the hell not sweetheart.”

“Don’t call me that, and because  _ Sans _ ,” you emphasized his name, “won’t like that.”  God your mind was reeling, where was Sans, did they just switch places?  Was he trapped in that darker world?  Why was he gone so long, it was only a flash last night.  Why was this Not Sans so calm about the ordeal?  Could he have come to the same conclusion as Sans did and was just enjoying the ride?  What the fuck was going on?!?  Trying to keep your face calm you gave up on the bottle and went back to your food, anything to keep your hands busy.  Not Sans took a swig of the mustard stating he didn’t care what he liked, “unless it’s you, then maybe i’ll care.”  His eyes flashed and he leaned forward as if to reach over to you.  You didn’t like the look in his eyes and you felt anger bubbling up over the layer of panic.

“Put your hand down before you lose it.” Hopefully your voice came across as shaking with anger and not any of the other emotions rushing through you.  Luckily Not Sans just shrugged and sat back taking another swig of mustard and then Sans was spitting it out and wiping his mouth, looking as if he had just been assaulted by the flavor.  You let out a shaky sigh of relief and tried to hide your shaking hands, “Thank god.”  Sans saw your hands shaking and the mustard in his hand and his eyes got wide.

“_____ what-” he left the question open and put the mustard down only to pick up the fallen ketchup and start chugging.  

“Not you, is an asshole Sans.” Then you told him what happened.  When you were done you started to eat your food again, rollercoaster that this was you were still hungry and no one not even the asshole was gonna keep you from your food.  Sans sat in silence, lost in thought for a bit until you pelted him with a non-sauced fry and gestured at him to speak.  Apparently he had been sitting in a very similar place, but everything was off.  There was more hostility from the humans where he was and you hadn’t been there but he had seen you walking alone outside, the moment you had seen him you had frozen and then turned and ran.  It was you but wasn’t you.  You were just glad he was back, what if he had been stuck there you asked and it looked as if the thought had crossed his mind, but he seemed pretty adamant about the fact that this would pass.  He also said that until it did, it might get worse and could put a lot of people in danger.  You passed the rest of your lunch in silence and he took you both the the embassy.

  
Asgore decided that until this was sorted out it was best for all monsters to avoid humans as much as possible.  You protested, your friends protested and eventually it was agreed that the handful of humans who had grown as close to the monsters as you had would be given the choice to stay or go until the danger was passed.  You and Frisk ended up sitting alone while everyone talked around you and you quietly discussed what was going on.  Frisk didn’t seem too worried about it but that didn’t really assuage any of your fears.  If this other place was really that bad what would happen if someone died while in the wrong world.  Someone needed to make sure the other side called a truce.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 ya'll let's see if I can make this a complete story eh? Feel free to suggest stuff, I'm getting a little blocked on how to have some characters interact.


	3. Chapter 3

“Sans I’m serious, I need to talk to the asshole.” You were sitting at Sans and Papyrus’ house waiting for Papyrus to return home from his excursion with Undyne.   
“and tell me again why exactly? especially after last time?” You groaned and flapped your arms in frustration.  
“Becaaausssse-ah, I told you we need to establish some kind of uh, what’s the word, talky thing.” You chewed on your lip for a second, another thing you did when stressed. “We’ve been over this already what if something happens because either they act up over here or one of you gets hurt over there? Do you honestly think if I talked to Not Asgore-”   
“you keep calling them not whoever.”  
“Yea cause they are NOT you guys. Anyway do you honestly think if a human or even one of you guys walked up to a dark and likely less rational Asgore and said ‘hey Your Majesty would it be ok if you just like used your royalness to make sure your people behave in this time of upheaval?’ NO I’m pretty sure we would be laughed at or worse.” You were talking too fast and you weren’t even sure if all the words separate words at this point. “The only person anyone of us has even interacted with is Not Sans, Sans. Maybe y’know if he spoke to his Asgore then things would be easier. Frisk agrees with me and so did Asgore, you were there! It’s not like I can just walk over to Undyne and say hey I need to talk to your evil twin. She threw the fucking couch at a wall when she saw Alphys and freaked out. The most the asshole did was look at me….in an uncomfortable manner and drink mustard-” You would have kept going, running in circles on the same topic until you died but Sans cut you off. “k--- ______ stop, breathe ok, fine.”  
“Fine?”  
“yea sure ok, but if he does anything…” He furrowed his brow, it looked weird without actually having eyebrows, or skin.  
“I know, run away.” Sans had made it explicitly clear that if the other him had the same powers he did that if it ever came down to a life or death situation you had to get out of there fast. You prodded him for specifics but the most he would tell you was that it would get bad and the chances of me hitting him were slim, not to mention that if Not Sans had the same handicap as Sans then any lethal direct hit would be the end of him, maybe even both of them. A little corner of yourself that you had nudged into a corner swelled up at that and demanded you try to protect him from anything like that, both of them if it came down to it, but you kept that to yourself.  
“PARLEY!”  
“what?”  
“That’s that word I was looking for, I just remembered.” Sans shook his head at you raising a brow.  
“Hey Sans I’ve got a surprise for you when this is all over, I left it at my place but I’m sure it will tickle your funnybone.” He looked at you for a moment and broke out into his regular grin, relaxing back into the couch. You sat like that for a while longer just watching tv until Papyrus got home, he had brought supplies with him to make spaghetti and you immediately jumped up to give him a hand. If you didn’t keep an eye on him while he cooked he would burn everything. 

While you stirred the noodles you suddenly felt the spoon being snatched from your hand and you were shoved against a wall. “WHAT IS A HUMAN DOING IN THE TERRIBLE PAPYRUS’ KITCHEN!?!” within seconds you found yourself behind Sans as he teleported between the two of you. You looked up at Papyrus and felt sweat trickle down the small of your back. He looked as wrong as Not Sans had. Black, jagged, angry. Sharp teeth, narrowed eyes, he radiated fury.   
“SANS WHAT ARE - WHAT ARE YOU WEARING!” for a minute you imagined your Papyrus wearing this outfit and you covered a smile with your hand, hoping it looked like you were covering your mouth in fear. The mental image destroyed the air of authority this Papyrus had around him. He looked like if Papyrus went through an edgy, angry, teen phase but never grew out of it. Before Sans could respond the Edgelord stepped back and looked around, his jaw clenched in disbelief. “SO THIS IS WHAT HE MEANT BY-” and he was gone, a very confused Papyrus stood in front of you both, your spoon in his hand.   
“paps are you ok?” Sans stepped towards him and Papyrus just looked at him before he seemed to snap out of the daze. “SANS I HAD THE STRANGEST THING HAPPEN TO ME, ONE MOMENT I WAS PREPARING THE SAUCE HERE AND THEN I WAS SUDDENLY LOOKING AT SOME VERY BIG SPAGHETTI NOODLES.” He gestured with his hands and the spoon to form large squares. You looked at Sans with narrowed eyes.  
“Sans, you haven't told him?” he turned around at your incredulous voice. You pushed past him and took the spoon from Papyrus. “You two need to have a talk, now.” You put as much force behind your voice as you put care into gently pushing them out of the kitchen. “BUT _____ -”  
“I'll finish dinner big guy, you taught me well I can handle this.” in truth you were the one to supplement his education showing him that you boiled pasta not burned it but he brightened when you said that and agreed to let you cool. “OF COURSE IT WILL BE AMAZING, YOU ARE A PUPIL OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS AFTER ALL.”  
While you finished cooking you listened as Sans explained the overlapping realities to Papyrus. You weren't sure how much of it made sense to him technicality wise but after a bit you heard him exclaim loudly and he seemed to get the idea. Sans warned him to stay away from anyone who may look like people he knew because they might not be as friendly but you weren't sure that Papyrus was going to listen to that, even if he agreed to do so. Papyrus was such a sweet guy that he would have tried befriending the most hardened criminal. Shaking your head you started to dish out the food.

Unfortunately Not Sans didn't make an appearance while you were with Sans that night, or the next night. If it wasn't for work you wouldn't have left him during the day at all but hey you gotta eat to live and you gotta work to eat. Reports of monsters switching with their counterparts and wreaking havoc were luckily kept within the community, a veritable lock down keeping them from the humans as much as possible beyond trips to the store. Shops were closed temporarily unless the monster owners had human employees. Grillby’s stayed open resolutely, he refused to close saying that everyone needed somewhere to go during all this and you were glad.   
You never gave up hope on having your talk with Not Sans and a few days after Paps’ incident you got your wish. You had gone to Grillby’s for lunch as usual and Sans had joined you upon request. You had finally dug out that thing you wanted to give him so you figured there wasn't any point in waiting, he'd get a laugh out of it at least and he needed some laughs these days with all the worrying he was doing. Digging in your bag you searched for the small book that had gotten buried only to look up into the too close eyes of Not Sans. You jumped.  
“Shit.” He laughed, leaning back against his side of the booth his eyes never leaving you.   
“hello to you too sweetheart.” he drawled. For a moment you just stared at him, comparing all the differences and similarities between him and your Sans, but oddly enough even though he was Sans through the dimensions you didn’t feel your stomach flutter like it did every time you looked at your smiling friend. “see anything you like?” Your eyes shot up to his and you glared.  
“What do I call you? I’m not calling you Sans, it’s confusing and calling you Not Sans is getting to be a pain in the ass.” He tilted his head at your deflection of his question and growled, “i don’t like coming in second, doll.”   
“And you think that’s going to change anything? I’ve already decided to call your brother Edge, short for Edgelord.” A chuckle escaped you when the picture of angsty teen Papyrus floated by again.  
“you what?” You couldn’t tell if he was mad or not, but then he started laughing. He laughed so hard and so loud that everyone in the bar turned to look at him. You waved them off with a shake of your head, a smile tugging at your lips. He had a contagious laugh, like your Sans did. “that’s the best shit I’ve heard in ages! Oh man, wait until I tell the boss what you said. edge. he’s gonna lose it!” After a while he calmed down and then looked at your amused face, he noticed you didn’t look at him as angrily as before. “alright, Red.”  
“Red what.”   
“call me Red.”  
“Is there a reason you chose that or ?”  
“look at me sweetheart, fits dunnit?” You shrugged at that, it really did.  
“Ok Red, well look I’ve been waiting for you, we need to talk.” Despite his half assed protests Red listened to everything you had to say, occasionally looking down at something in his lap, and for the most part he seemed to agree, at least you hoped he did as he never gave a true indication either way while you spoke. He didn’t say much until you were done, just sat there drinking mustard while you eyed him curiously. At one point you broke off distracted and asked him why, if he liked red so much, didn’t he like ketchup. “because it’s disgusting” is all he said on the matter. After you finished telling him what you had spoken to Frisk and Asgore about Red just looked at you his eyelights bore into you as if he was reading you like a book and you felt uncomfortable. For a moment while talking to him you had felt as familiar as if you were just talking to Sans but now it felt as far from that as it possibly could. Red wasn’t your friend and at the same time he was, you could feel the pricks of a headache behind your eyes and you rubbed the bridge of your nose.  
“ok deal.” Your head shot up and you looked at Red in surprise.  
“Wait, seriously?” He shrugged.  
“yea, I mean i really don’t know if anyone will listen to me but if i can convince the boss then maybe…” he trailed off, you were smiling nearly as wide as he was.   
“Oh my god! Thank you Red!” You breathed out an exaggerated sigh of relief. “Oh wait!” but then he was gone and Sans was sitting before you eyeing the mustard in his hand disdainfully. That had gone surprisingly well you thought. And Red hadn’t been half as much an asshole as he was the first time you met him. Excitedly you rambled off your success to Sans who sat in a cool silence. When you finished speaking you looked at him curiously, something had happened. He had been gone nearly half an hour this time, what had happened to him?  
“Sans, what happened?” As it turned out he had appeared in front of Edge who had apparently been berating Red when they switched places. Sans had never thought that Papyrus could be like that, he didn’t even like to think about what had could have happened tomake him so angry. Of course Edge hadn’t completely stopped berating Sans when he realized what had happened he had just switched gears. Not willing to deal with it he had gone to his lab, well Red’s lab. Your heart ached to see him so hurt. OH! You pulled out the little book and waved it triumphantly in the air. It was a little joke book you had gotten at a school book fair way back in grade school. Inside were different themed sections and you opened it to a random page and began to read.  
“What kind of bulbs do you plant on the moon?” He looked at you joy spreading across his face.  
“What?”  
“Light bulbs!” You started laughing, the jokes in the books were so terrible and you remember torturing your friends with it the day you bought it. Sans broke down in laughter, and for a moment everything was ok. “Here dude, its for you, I’ve had it since grade school and now I bequeath it to you.” You made a big show of giving him the book as if it was the most precious item in the world and from the look on his face and the way he held it reverently it might as well have been. The look he gave you made you feel like you could do anything in the world. Sans opened his mouth to say something but then your phone alarm went off, screaming at you to return to work. Sans got up to walk you to work holding the little book close to him the entire way there. When you arrived you turned and hugged him on impulse, “It’s gonna be alright Sans, ok? I have a plan to make sure your brother will be looked after on the other side but I can’t do anything about it until I see Red again so don’t worry. I gotta go, I’ll see you at game night later.” with that you went into the building, you didn’t see the blue light that had sprung to Sans face. 

Sans looked at the small book in his hands and then looked back at you as you walked out of sight. What did he do to deserve you? Nothing, that is what he told himself and yet … his face burned thinking about how you hugged him and he shook his head. You were trying so hard to look out for him and his brother, for everyone. Sighing he went home looking forward to gracing Papyrus with some samples from the joke book. Sans checked his phone and saw an unfamiliar contact under his most recent conversations. Someone called “Hot Piece of Ass” his eye lights blinked out when he realized it was your phone number. When had Red gotten into his phone!?! He blushed again and changed your name back, he needed to leave Red a note. A very strongly worded note.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who wants to hear some jokes? I literally have a tiny, beat up book of terrible jokes.
> 
> Also question, I know the most common nicknames for UF Papyrus is Edge and UF Sans is Red, but what about everyone else? Like Undyne, Alphys, etc. do they have any? I have come up empty handed in my searches.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What dog smells like mustard and ketchup? (see end notes for answer)

The first time you met Undyne’s counterpart you were playing one of your fighting games together, she had a lot of energy built up having been limited to what she was allowed to do and you had coaxed her into a few matches, or twenty.  The more you guys played the better she seemed.  You hadn’t seen Red for a few days since he had agreed to help you but you hadn’t really seen anyone else’s counterparts either.  Suddenly Undyne was losing the match, actually she had just stopped playing.

“Undyne?”  You looked over and there she was, ripped shirt, glaring eyes and sharp teeth bared in a sneer.  Immediately you scooted away on the floor a little and put your controller down. “Ok, ok wait listen.”

“What is going on, punk?”  She growled.

“Undyne, I don’t know what you know about the whole intersecting worlds thing but um yea you’re not in your world at the moment?”  You shrugged and tried to make yourself seem trustworthy, but how the hell do you do that when you can almost feel the spears she could summon at any moment pointing at you.  “You may not believe this but the Undyne from my world is my friend, we were just playing a fighting game,” you gestured to the screen where both of your characters were idling, bloody messes.  She followed your hand and looked at the screen and then back at you, slowly she seemed to force herself to relax and you released a breath you didn’t know you were holding.

‘Where’s Alphys?”  

“Umm...I don’t know if your Alphys is here right now or not, but last I heard this Alphys was working on a way to keep track of the crossing.”  This Undyne didn’t seem all that different from yours, maybe a little ok maybe a lot more prone to violence you thought, remembering how she threw the couch the first time.  You looked at the wall with the massive hole and she followed your gaze.  

“That makes sense I guess.  Asgore told me I needed to...try to control myself if I ended back up over here.”  You could hear the grudging acceptance in her voice and feeling bold you picked up your controller.

“Well it seems Asgore gave that order on both sides then,” You almost couldn’t believe that Red had followed through on his word, you wondered if he got in trouble for speaking up.  After hearing what happened to Sans last time you felt yourself hoping Red was ok.  “But since you’re here why don’t you play me?  You’ve played this before right?  I was just starting to win for once and that never happens.”  Undyne’s eyes lit up at the sound of a challenge and she found herself oddly interested in the human beside her.

 “Listen, just because your Undyne was letting you win doesn’t mean I will.”  She enjoyed the looks of fear most humans gave her in her world but here was one that seemed almost happy to see her.  She snatched up the controller and flashed you a feral smile. “you’re on.”

 

You lost every round.

 

While the other Undyne was playing games with you you carefully prodded her for information on the monsters and world on the other side.  The more you played and the more she relaxed, the more information she told you.  You weren’t really surprised to hear that monsters were meaner and more violent where she came from but you were glad that they were willing to … restrain themselves in your world.  When you got into the topic of humans she sneered, there was apparently a very bad rapport between the two races.  Not surprising, maybe humans were also just shittier over there you had no idea.  You remembered Sans saying that someone that looked like you had run in fear from him, so maybe there was a lot of blame to share.  So far the two monsters from the other side you had actually talked to hadn’t seemed that bad, so maybe a little effort could make things easier?  You kept that to yourself.  An hour into playing with the other Undyne you had looked at her, completely focused on ripping your character apart and she looked so much like and yet so different from your Undyne that you smiled.

“Hey, I’m glad I got to meet you.”  And you were, you truly were glad you got to meet this Undyne.  You didn’t know much about her beyond what you had seen but it didn’t matter at the moment.  She looked at you, not even stopping her brutal reign in the game and then she smiled, a softer smile.  You weren’t sure anyone had ever told her that before.

“Y’know, you’re alright.”  Your character died in the game.

  
  


That night you went over your plan to help Papyrus in your head, suddenly having more options than you did before.  You wanted to introduce Red to Paps and build a kind of relationship between them so Red could look out for him, but maybe if the other Undyne could be persuaded to meet him and not tear him apart for being, well, Papyrus then maybe just maybe she would be willing to help too.  How would she even react to seeing such a happy and loving version of Edge?  Maybe you should wait on that after all.  You also needed to figure out what to call her, all these different people was getting hard to keep track of everyone. You thought on this for a while until your phone lit up with a text and you rolled over on your side to read it.

“what happened when the lion ate the comedian?”

“He felt funny, come on Sans I know that book front to back.”

“ _ humerus _ me”

“Ha ha, fine.”

“what do giraffes have that no other animal has?”

“Ohhh i don’t know Sans, what could it be?”

“baby giraffes”  “ass” You laughed at the second text and went to put your phone on the night stand but it lit up again. “you certainly have a great ass, sweetheart”  You clenched your teeth together and took a deep breath before replying.

“Hello Red.”

“hey doll”

“Did you want something?”

“just got here but if you’re offerin”

“Good night Red.”  You turned your phone vibration off and turned it upside down so it wouldn’t light up.  If he hadn’t called you sweetheart you probably would have known it was him anyway, not even Sans made jokes like that.  Asshole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A hot dog.
> 
> *finger guns*  
> This old joke book is SO BAD.  
> Sorry for the short chapter, the next one is going to be much longer don't worry.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to extend thanks to [cracking_the_mind](http://archiveofourown.org/users/cracking_the_mind/pseuds/cracking_the_mind%0A), [Punny_Fan](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Punny_Fan/pseuds/Punny_Fan), and [Traffic](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Traffic) for helping me with nicknames for some of the Underfell characters. And a big thank you to Traffic, my dear ol' buddy 'ol pal etc. for beta reading for me.
> 
> NOW FOR THE JOKE:  
> Why did the lion feel sick after he'd eaten the priest? (see end for answer/punchline)

You hung out with Frisk the next day thankful for the work holiday. Together you guys made a tentative list of names for the other worlds versions of your friends.  Over an hour a small like of crumpled papers slowly built up at your feet under the table.  When Toriel walked in to see if either of you needed anything she looked at the pile of paper on her kitchen floor and promptly walked away, not that either of you two noticed.  

Eventually you settled on something you thought would be decent enough to not really piss anyone off.  You resolutely decided to call Papyrus and Sans, Edge and Red, there was no changing that and Frisk seemed to agree. During one point in your deliberation Asgore had stopped in to talk to Toriel and when he had asked what the two of you were doing he laughed.  You knew how he was with naming things but you didn't know enough about his counterpart to call him anything and so you asked him for advice.  He thought about it for a moment and hummed to himself.

“You know, the only thing I've noticed is that I will often come to with a cup of Chamomile tea in front of me.  Maybe you-” Frisk jumped in, “We will call him Chamomile.”

“I'm not sure about that kid but you do you.” You said chuckling. Was the other Asgore so irritable that he relied on his tea to stay calm?  Hmm.  

It was also frisk who decided to call the other Toriel Cinnamom.  Oddly enough you thought it fit, if your Toriel was sweet then it stands to reason the other one would match with everyone else.  Frisk said she was still nice just quick to burn you if you pushed her too far.  You were pretty sure there were at least one other joke in there you didn't get.

“Ok Frisk let's see what he have. Red and Edge for the bros.  Die and Doc for the girls, aptly shipped as Dr. Die,” Frisk nodded sagely, that was also their idea.  “ King Chamomile and Cinnamom.” and the list went on.  Frisk had more close friends than you so you just agreed with what they had picked out.  All in all you were pleased and you weren't sure how you felt about calling either Toriel mom but the nickname was cute.

 

After getting Frisk to help clean up you bid them farewell so you could get your laundry done.  Living in a small apartment with no washer and dryer meant you used to have to get your stuff to the coin machines during the dead hours but all of your friends had said, well insisted you could do laundry at their places which meant depending on who was free to help you move your baskets was who you ended up spending that day with.  Unknown to you a small war had started between the girls and the brothers on who could get to you first most days and today was no different.

“Hey guys I gotta do laundry, who wants to pick me up? I bought snacks yesterday.”  immediately the group chat blew up; Papyrus wanted you to come over to watch the new movie he had gotten and Undyne wanted a rematch from the day before when Die had taken her thunder.  She said something about needing to prove she was better than herself but you weren't sure there was anyway you could get beat any harder.  

“I don't care where I do laundry guys I just want clean clothes”

Your phone vibrated a few more times but before you could check it you heard a knock at your door.  Squinting you opened it to the grinning face of Sans.  If he didn't slouch he would be around your height you mused.  You bowed him into your apartment.

“Ah good sir how wonderful of you to come to the aid of a damsel in distress.”  Straightening up just a tad he sauntered through the doorway and you shook your head amused.  “Undyne’s gonna be pissed.” You headed over to your pile of clothes and started to shove them into your basket.

“now that's a nice view dollface.” You stiffened where you stood bent over the basket, reaching for a fallen sock.

“Stay where you are Red.” You said sharply.  You could almost feel his red eyes boring into your ass as you straightened up and grabbed the laundry soap. When you finally turned to him with your basket in your hands you saw him shoving something back in his pocket, you squinted again.  “Ok, let's go.”

“what?”

“Listen Red, Sans was taking me to his place to do my laundry so now that's your job. Plus this works in my benefit.”

“how do you figure that?”

“I want you to meet Papyrus.”  luckily for you both realities had the brothers living in the same place so you weren't really asking that much but the look Red gave you, was as if the fact that you were telling him what to do was somehow confusing for him, made you roll your eyes.  There was something about him that rubbed you the wrong way and you felt as if you let him get the upper hand you were going to regret it.  For his part Red was confused, ever since you first met him you hadn't even been phased. No matter if he tried to intimidate you, or if he hit on you, no matter what he did you always treated him as if he was just exasperating and yet you never really pushed him away.  He would lying if he said he wasn't intrigued by you.  He would also be lying if he said he hadn't started looking forward to your interactions, and your reactions.  Red was determined to break your shell and in spite of Sans’ warning note, he was looking forward to toying with you when he succeeded.  

Smiling mischievously Red walked toward you but you held up your hand.  “Wait!” you ran into the kitchen stuffing the snacks into your backpack. “Forgot the snacks, ok I'm ready.” You ran back over to where Red stood and picked up your basket.

“come on sweetheart, you didn't need to bring food i think i’d fill you up just fine.” He breathed into your ear as he pulled you close causing your heart to leap into your throat. The next second you were in Sans’ house and were trying to push Red off of you.  

“Get off of me you perv! PAPYRUS!” at the sound of your voice the taller skeleton came running to where you were, Red having released you with wicked laughter.  

“OH ____ I SEE MY BROTHER BEAT UNDYNE TO RETRIEVE YOU!” He stopped when he saw you and Red, “SANS?”

“Paps keep him away from me.”  you bit the words off and stalked towards the washing machine, your heart was still racing from the sudden intimacy.  The hairs on your neck stood up when you remembered the deep, breathy growl of Red’s words.  He smelled of mustard and something else you couldn’t quite put your finger on.  Irritated you shook your head and forcefully shoved your laundry in the washing machine, you were looking forward to your soft throw blanket being all toasty warm and that thought smoothed the anger from your face.  Suddenly Papyrus walked up behind you timidly. “____ WHAT HAS HAPPENED BETWEEN YOU AND MY BROTHER?”  You closed the lid of the washer and turned to him.

“Well remember what Sans said about the other reality?  That jerk out there is Red, the Sans from the other world.  He was being very ungentlemanly.”  You could see the look of understanding dawn upon Papyrus’ face and he stood up straighter.

“DON’T WORRY ____ THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL MAKE SURE THAT NOTHING UNTOWARD WILL HAPPEN WHILE YOU ARE HERE!”

 **“** Aw Paps,” you patted him on the arm gratefully.  “Hey, since you’re here why don’t you meet him at least, he may be a jerk but I think he could help you if you end up in his world in the future.”  He opened his mouth to say something but you had already walked back towards the living room the sound of the washing machine following you.  “Hey!”  Red looked up at you with a smirk and then looked right past you to Papyrus.  You had no idea what he was thinking but you could almost hear the gears turning in his head.  

“____ HAS INFORMED ME THAT I AM TO CALL YOU RED DESPITE THE FACT THAT YOU LOOK LIKE MY BROTHER.  I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, YOU CAN CALL ME PAPYRUS.”  You could see that Papyrus was trying to be stern, arms crossed as he looked down at Red with his signature squint.  “NOW LISTEN, I WILL NOT ABIDE BY ANY UNTOWARDS BEHAVIOR TO ____”  Red continued to look up at Papyrus, at the stern look on his face and then he started laughing, you blinked and glanced over at Paps his face betraying his hurt.  Anger flared up inside you but you were afraid of calling Red out in case it confirmed Papyrus’ hurt feelings and hurt him more, you settled for a glare.

“no no, i’m not,” Red waved his hand lazily and seeing the looks on both of your faces stopped laughing, “i’m not laughing at you Papyrus.”  Papyrus shared a look of confusion with you.  “it’s just, wow, look at you. you’re amazing!”  Paps puffed up a little with pride at that and you relaxed a bit.  When Red first saw Papyrus when he had released you in the apartment he was surprised, honestly he didn’t know what to expect from this world’s version of his brother but there he was, bright and full of joy.  Then he heard him talk and he sounded so much like Edge but he was honestly the gentlest opposite of his own brother he had ever seen.  Just imagining what life would have been like if Edge hadn’t grown up so angry made him a little envious of Sans but he wouldn’t trade his brother for the world.  In some way both versions of Papyrus gave off a similar level of innocent naivety with Edge being a little more world weary, and in much the same way Red looked out for Edge he was certain that Sans did the same for Papyrus.  Maybe even more so because the Papyrus before him looked like he wouldn’t kill anyone even if they were beating him into the ground.  Whether or not this was the same Papyrus he raised he knew he was going to end up looking out for him, especially judging by the look on your face.

“look Paps i will be on my best behavior, cross my soul.”  Red drew an X over his chest with a finger.  Papyrus seemed to believe him and smiled.

“Hey Paps, are the girls coming over? I brought brownie mix.”  You gave him a gentle smile, letting him know it was alright to be excited.

“I WILL INVITE THEM NOW, COME BR- S- RED I HAVE QUESTIONS FOR YOU, IS EDGE CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD? IS HE AS POPULAR AS I AM?”  Letting go of his stern facade he pelted Red with questions who, oddly enough looked up at him with what could have been an endearing look.  

 

After you had switched your laundry over and the brownies were in the oven the girls showed up, well more like Undyne kicked the door in.  “Hey punk! Where’s my rematch!?”  Startled your hand bumped against the burner in the oven as you pushed the brownies back in for a few more minutes.  A long hiss escaped from your mouth.  

“Give me a minute Undyne,” you called back and checked the fridge for something to put on your hand, where did the mustard go?  DAMN IT!  “RED!”  He appeared next to the stove, “you called sweetheart?”  

“Give me the mustard,” you narrowed your eyes a little bit.  “Please.”  You held out your uninjured hand patiently.

“i see you finally _mustard_ up some manners.”  

“Now Red.”

“ah there it is, here doll.”  He pulled out the mustard bottle from his pocket and you looked out how empty it was.

“This isn’t yours, leave it alone.”  You squirted some of the mustard onto your burn and felt immediate relief as it drew out some of the heat.  

“what are you doin’?”  He looked from your hand, to the mustard, to your face and back again as if he was affronted you had disrespected the mustard like that.

“It helps with the burn, thanks but like I said leave this in the fridge.”  you shook the mustard at him and put it back in the fridge.  Then you checked the timer, and then the brownies.  They were perfect, just gooey enough in the center.  With the brownies cooling on the counter and the oven off you returned to the living room.  You froze when you came face to face with Die.

“Hey punk.”

“Oh, Die, hi.”

“What?”

“I said hi?”

“What did you call me?”  

“Uh, Die? I figured it was easier to make sense of who was who in my head so Frisk and I thought we would call you Die, like Undyne the Undying, but just Die for short.  Is that...ok?”  You shrugged into yourself and looked up at her waiting for a response.

“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING THAT’S HARDCORE!”  you relaxed.  “What did you decide to call Alphys?”  Her face was too close for comfort but she seemed non threatening so you carefully took a step back.

“Doc.”  Die raised an eyebrow and beamed at you, feeling bold you continued, “Frisk decided to call you guys Dr. Die as a ship name.”  Die stood up abruptly and pulled you into a headlock, her version of a hug you hoped.

“BABE! We have a ship name!”  You stopped struggling and looked out into the living room to where Alphys was sitting, or more aptly Doc who was eyeing you appraisingly.  Then you looked at Papyrus and he was practically vibrating where he sat, all these new people in one day he was beside himself in excitement.  

“Hi.” you choked out awkwardly from your position.  When you tapped on Die’s arm she let you go with a laugh and seated herself on the floor next to Doc.  Within the span of a breathe Die had already told Doc about the names and was expressing her excitement.  For a moment you thought she was Undyne, your Undyne.  When Doc heard her nickname you could see a noticeable change, almost like you could visibly see her perk up, you guess it was a good choice.  

“If it helps I’m pretty sure you guys in any world are Frisk’s OTP.”  you took your seat at the other end of the couch from Red, Papyrus was on the floor in front of him.  Had no one thought to introduce themselves.  “Hey uh Die, Doc I would like you to meet Papyrus.”  

“H-He looks nothing like our Papyrus,” Doc turned her sharp rimmed glasses towards him.

“I ASSURE YOU I HAVE BEEN INFORMED BY UNDYNE THAT I AM IMPRESSIVE IN MY OWN RIGHT!  I AM SO HAPPY TO MEET YOU, I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD MEET ANYONE AS COOL AS UNDYNE LET ALONE THAT IT WOULD BE UNDYNE.”  Die grinned at that it seemed Papyrus knew just how to flatter her in any world.  

“I’m still not sure how I feel about this.”  Doc said still looking around the room and then back at you and Papyrus, her eyes were narrowed and she shifted uncomfortably.  You looked at Red who seemed to be quite enjoying himself and then told the girls that the brownies would be ready in a moment. Trying to build an amicable atmosphere you offered to let them choose what to watch, with the internet at your disposal they had all the options in the world.  Papyrus seemed as if he was going to protest as he had bought a new movie that he wanted to watch with everyone but then he stopped himself and smiled, stating that they were the guests and of course they could choose.  That seemed to placate Doc which seemed to please Die and you quickly found yourself in an anime marathon.  You licked the mustard off of your burn, feeling Red’s eyes on you, and wiped the saliva off onto your pants.  Red was a little flustered after watching you lick up the mustard.

 

A couple hours into this after everyone had gorged themselves on the snacks you had brought, and you had removed your laundry from the dryer you wrapped yourself up in your toasty, fluffy blanket.  While you were more than happy to be able to sit with everyone in relative peace like this you wished your friends would come back.  Shifting in your seat you knocked the remote off of the arm of the couch.  Grumbling to yourself you leaned over the arm and reached for it and then froze.  Red had grabbed your ass.  Without even thinking you whirled around and slapped him across the face, Papyrus looked up startled, Die started cackling and even Doc was laughing, she snorted a bit when she laughed.  But the second your hand made contact with Red’s surprised face it was Sans whose head turned with the force of your hand.  Rage melted into panic and you reeled back, your hands hovering around him not sure how to help.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Meanwhile Sans had found himself back in his apartment moments after entering ____’s and realized that he had swapped with Red.  He jumped up from the couch and then stopped, Red was now in her apartment with her alone but he couldn’t do anything about that.  Frustrated he raked his hands over his face and sat back down, what was apparently some gore movie marathon was on the tv but he couldn’t find the remote.  After a while he felt his phone go off, only it was Red’s phone and it looked like he was getting a bunch of texts from Undyne.  Then he realized it was actually Undyne, not Die but Undyne so he immediately teleported over to them.  He sat with them talking, fretting, and the more he fidgeted the more Undyne had gotten frustrated.  Until she finally exploded on him and with Alphys looking on in amusement he shamefacedly listened to Undyne yell at him for blowing ____ off when he obviously liked her.  He didn’t have any responses to her so he just took it.  Finally she had sighed and put her hand on his shoulder.

“Look dude, don’t do what I did and wait, especially when you already know she likes you.  You hurt her, don’t let your asshole evil twin slip in there while she waits for you.”

 

A few hours after that he was suddenly looking ____ in the face.  Pure, unadulterated rage on her face as her hand slapped him. Hard.  He saw her rage turn to panic as he rubbed his cheek bone in shock.

  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“SANS! Oh no, oh god, I’m so sorry!”  Your voice broke as your flailed your hands uselessly, laughter filling the air around you.  “He, he grabbed my ass and I slapped him but then it was you. Are you ok?”  You kept apologizing and when Sans didn’t respond, just blankly looked at you, you shrunk into your blanket and tried to recede to the other end of the couch.  Sans was in pain it’s true, your training with Undyne didn’t go unnoticed in your slap but really he was just happy that Undyne had been wrong, there was no way Red was going to worm his way into your good graces the way he was acting.  He started laughing, a full bodied laugh that rumbled through the couch.  

“Oh my god punk I can’t believe you slapped him! WAIT until I tell Papyr-Edge he is never and I mean NEVER going to live this shit down.  I won’t let him!  Tell me you got that!”  That last bit was directed to Doc who tapped her glasses and laughed.  Was there a camera in her glasses or something? Papyrus fussed over his brother until he was certain he was fine and then looked at you turtling your way into your blanket.

“____ DON’T WORRY! SANS IS OK, I SHOULD HAVE KEPT A BETTER EYE ON THAT MISCREANT I AM THE ONE WHO SHOULD BE APOLOGIZING.”  you quickly tried to wave Papyrus off.  You had forgotten, what if you had hit Sans too hard?  Before you could beat yourself up over it you felt yourself being pulled into a hug.

“thank you.”  Why was Sans thanking you, why was he hugging you.  Heat rushed to your face and you noticed that Sans had that same smell you couldn’t really identify and he barely smelled like ketchup, Red was a slob, and then after you started to let yourself enjoy the moment Sans suddenly pulled away.  The most subtle of blue’s graced his cheekbones and you turned away confused.

“Yea sure, welcome I guess.”  Die looked at the two of you and then shared a knowing look with Doc who patted your leg sympathetically.  Carefully cocooned in your blanket you went back to watching tv.

  
Surprised at himself Sans slumped into the couch himself and pulled out his phone, and then nearly dropped it. His phone wallpaper had been changed to a picture of your butt as you bent over to retrieve a sock.  How did Red keep getting into his phone, he kept changing the password.  He looked around panicked, blushing harder than when he hugged you and changed the picture back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because it's hard to keep a good man down.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why is life like a shower. (see end notes for answer)

 

Red returned to his room feeling like shit.  Anger or fear.  Terror or rage.  Why was he such an asshole?  Ok yes if he admitted it to himself he loved to antagonize ____, ever since he first saw her in that other world he was impressed with her determination and stubbornness. But everytime he saw her over there he saw the look of terror he had put in her face in his world.  He'd never really forgiven himself for that night no matter how much he had told himself it didn't matter. Growling he grabbed his head and swore, then he went to Grillby’s.  He would drink until the faces blurred together.  At least he got his kicks out if harassing Sans, it was obvious he liked ____, too chicken shit to do anything about it though.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

For the next couple of months you noticed a pattern, each day anytime someone swapped places they spent longer and longer in the wrong world.  And before long more and more monsters started to swap at the same time.  Every time your friends left, your heart ached so you mustered up a smile and spent the time with their counterparts.  Eventually you found yourself looking forward to the fresh personalities of your new friends and then not only were you missing your own friends but the idea of never seeing your new friends again once the crossing passed drove a deep stake of pain in your heart.

Edge took the longest to warm up to you and unsurprisingly Die took to you the fastest.  Your relationship with Red was tenuous to say the least.  The longer he was stuck in your world the harder you tried to find a common ground with him but for some reason he seemed to be doing everything he could to piss you off.  Every single time you thought you had made progress with him he would do something to put you back at square one.  He flirted heavily many days, making lewd suggestive comments which you fought to ignore but it was the days that he got too close or too physical that you snapped at him and then he would go back to flirting and dirty jokes.  The times when he took advantage of teleporting you, when he pulled you close and growled something low in your ear, those were moments that followed you into your sleep leaving you confused and feeling guilty for a reason you couldn’t understand.  Those were the moments you tried to forget.

Sans and you hadn't really had much contact since he had hugged you that night, even teleporting with him was as chaste as it had always been.  You secretly wished those confusing moments with Red would be Sans instead.  But despite everything confusing and familiar it all bottomed out into a somewhat comfortable pattern until the day Red showed up drunk.

 

You were riding your bike home late one night after hanging out at Grillby’s after work, the barman had been swapped for over a day now and you took the time to get to know his purple counterpart. Oddly enough he seemed to recognize you, or more like the other you and that had grabbed your attention.  You had noticed that most of the regulars from the other side seemed to be ok with you too, you had thought that the other version of yourself was afraid of monsters.  Was she just scared of Red?  This thought had you occupied to the point you almost didn't see the drunken mess of Red leaving one of Sans’ secret places in the park.

“Red?”  you pedaled over to him. At the sound of your voice he whipped his head up and his eye lights shrunk.

“go away sweetheart.”

“I've told you not to call me that, what's wrong? Are you drunk?” he narrowed his eyes.  Red saw a similar moment flash in front of his mind’s eye, of a similar woman offering her help moments before terror overcame her face.  He shook his head and growled, “get the fuck away from me, i don't want anything to do with you. Never did.” You blinked, taken aback.

“No.”

“kid.” His eyes flared angrily.

“For fuck’s sake Red stop it!” you got off your bike and took a step towards him. He raised his hand a fraction and dropped it. He already knew what your face looked like bathed in the red light if his magic and it sickened him. He bowed his head.

“just go away, please. i don't deserve your sympathy. i didn't then and i don't now.”

“Red?” you walked over to him cautiously, what was he talking about? Did this have something to do with why the other you was afraid of him. What did he do?

“shit kid what is wrong with you. why do you always have to try to help dangerous and fucked up monsters, can't leave well enough a fucking lone.” You opened your mouth and closed it, stopping where you were. You stalked up to his slumped form and grabbed the open sides of his jacket and yanked him up.

“What did you do to her Red. Is this why you are always a fucking asshole to me?” your voice was low and controlled.  He looked at you with a shit eating grin, daring you to do something, anything, so you shoved him back and glowered at him.  “Why is she afraid of you?”  Red’s expression shifted and he laughed. It was a depressing laugh.

“look sweetheart we both know i’m an asshole.” You just stared at him and waited.  He looked away and after what felt like a second that stretched forever he told you, never once looking you your face. Tired of seeing rage and terror in his mind, rage and terror from the same person that only ever tried to help him.

 

Around the same time you first met Sans, Red had gotten drunk as he often did when the nightmares came, and had found himself at the wrong end of a group of equally drunk humans.  The law said he couldn't fight them and he figured if he couldn't get away maybe, just maybe that was ok.  And then there she was, she stood between the humans and Red, panting from the race over but resolute.  The humans eventually gave up and left, not really caring; they wouldn't remember it anyway.  She had tried to help Red up but he was angry, and very, very hammered.  He pushed her away, he yelled at her and she just gave him the same look of concern you had multiple times over the past few months.  She got frustrated just like you at his reactions and even though she stayed back she wouldn't leave.  Red didn't think he deserved anyone's sympathy, and why would he want any from a human anyway.  So he did something stupid, he threatened her.  He summoned his bone attacks to try and scare her off and she only looked at him stubbornly, calling his bluff. He remembered seeing her at Grillby’s before, no wonder she wasn't scared he had thought, but in his drunken haze he didn't care. He summoned his blasters and saw fear flicker over her face.  Red growled at her, yelled at her, why wouldn't she leave him alone. He set off a blaster into the air above her.

 

Pure terror.  She ran.  He remembered seeing her eyes shine with tears and she never stopped running.  

 

After that Grillby had treated him coldly and if he ever went to the bar when she was there Grillby helped her slip away.

 

You listened to Red’s story, you listened and cold fingers wrapped themselves around your heart and dug in.  How were you supposed to feel about this. You were upset, angry, confused, hurt, empathetic. A cloud of emotions swirled around you and you couldn't make heads or tails of it so you did the only thing you could and you walked over to his slumped, kneeling form and you hugged him.  He stiffened and then he let it go, “i'm so sorry _____.”

He never apologized, he never showed he even felt shame and yet here he was, broken. Too used to being alone that he had run off the only person who had truly wanted to help him.

“Would you have done it?” he stopped breathing.

“no.”

“Then I forgive you.” Red wrapped his arms around you and started to shake.  He was crying. “But it's not my forgiveness you need.”  He didn't give any indication he heard you but you knew he did.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Sans had been gone more and more lately having to live in this backward world Red called home.  He had appeared this time in Grillby’s and was holding a half empty glass of alcohol.  When he looked curiously up at the orange elemental Grillby shrugged, Red had been drinking...a lot lately apparently.  Sans just shook his head and took the bottle of ketchup Grillby offered him appreciatively.  Ever since Die had met Papyrus she had taken him under her wing, whether or not that was a good thing was still left to be determined but regardless of her influence on him she made sure no one bothered him and that was a big relief for Sans since Edge Die found Paps oddly endearing, who couldn’t honestly.  Sans chuckled to himself and then slouched into his seat.   Undyne and Die were both riding his ass about ____ now, and even tho she was burned into his mind and he still remembered how she smelled of brownies the night he had hugged her, but he couldn’t bring himself to do anything.  He had already waited so long he wasn’t even sure what would happen if he told ____ at this point.  Part of him still didn’t believe he deserved her but it was more than that, he was selfish just not selfish enough to make her his.  He heard the door to Grillby’s open and turned to look, there she was.  Wait, no, that wasn’t his ____.  The moment her eyes fell on him confusion and fear and frustration warred on her face until she turned and left.  He didn’t even realize he had moved until he was standing outside the bar.

“wait, kid wait.”  she stopped stiffly and then turned to look at him, her face a stony mask and her shaking hands stuffed under her armpits.  

“What do you want?”

“look i’m not who you think i am.”  

“I know, but why are you so interested in me?  I’ve seen you watching me what do you want?”  That question again, what did he want?  He wanted to go home, he wanted to be able to sit with his brother and friends without wondering when he was going to end up somewhere else, he wanted to stop worrying about a reset.  He wanted ____.  

“honestly kid, i don’t know.”  She stared at him for a moment and then sighed.

“Look, I don’t pretend to know what’s going on around here, Grillby explained it a little but I really don’t know.  If you’re trying to talk to me because I look like someone else you know it isn’t like I asked to be a replacement or whatever ok?”  

“NO, i mean no that’s not why i, look kiddo you do look like someone i know, a very close friend of mine.”

“I’m not her.”

“Aaagghh....i knooow, nevermind.”  Frustrated Sans turned away and walked off.  Confused, ____ followed him, why was this squishy looking Sans trying to talk to her?  More importantly if what Grillby told him was true then this guy was friends with another version of her, so why did he care about her here, now?  What would happen if she talked to him and the real Sans came back and looked at her with his red eyes that could summon death?  Still, curiosity ate at her and she followed.  Sans let her.

 

He walked to the park and sat on a swing.  After a moment of hesitation she sat on the one next to him in silence.  

“This isn’t a very nice place.”  The statement hung between them and when Sans turned he saw she was looking at him, forehead resting on the chain of the swing.  “The humans here aren’t happy you guys came back.”  Sans knew what she meant, he’d already escaped from a few different groups of humans since the crossing started.  He’d had to convince Papyrus to run if he was ever in a similar situation.    

“why aren’t you phased by monsters then?”  She shrugged.

“Humans are worse no matter what your people did, humans are alwa….almost always worse.  I’d never really had a problem with most monsters and as long as I keep to myself they never had a problem with me.  It’s nice, too many humans...keeping to yourself isn’t always an option with them.”  She looked away from him and slowly started the swing moving.

“ _tibia_ honest kid, i’m curious what happened between you and …” he trailed off but she knew what she meant.  The corner of her mouth twitched at his pun.

“I just wanted to help him, he was in trouble.  The humans made me angry, why couldn’t they just leave anyone alone.” Her voice shook with memories of anger, “he looked so sad, defeated. But … he’s just like everyone else.  I stuck my nose where it didn’t belong and he, he didn’t like that.  I thought he was joking, monsters aren’t allowed to attack humans with magic but he…”  This ____ stopped talking and put more effort into swinging.  He had attacked her, or something so close that just the sight of Sans was enough to scare her, but here she was talking to him.  She was stubborn too.  Sans didn’t pretend to understand what had been going on in Red’s head that day but his eye lights dimmed when he thought about it.  

“kid where’s your family? did you tell them what happened?”  If he remembered correctly ____’s family was pretty involved in her life, as much as she would let them at least.  This ____ on the other hand laughed sharply causing Sans to knit his brow together in concern.  

“If they knew I spent most of my time around monsters, tried to help them, almost died from one and still didn’t run away they would KILL me!”  Sans watched her swing higher and higher, there was an air of sadness behind her stubbornness and it wrung his soul to think about what she had gone through in her life.  They sat like that for a while just talking until his phone- Red’s phone rang and he saw that Die was trying to see where he was.  Papyrus was worried about him and Edge had locked his phone in his room, resolute on the fact Papyrus was not allowed inside.  He got up to leave and then stopped, maybe he could help after all.

“hey kid, if you’re free i have some friends looking for me, i think you’d like them.” he knew she would.  Surprised she struggled to slow her swing, digging her feet into the mulch below her and stumbled off. She beamed, “That would be amazing!”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

After Red had calmed down you called Undyne to come pick you both up.  When she arrived she took one look at the drunken mess of skeleton and hoisted him up only to throw him unceremoniously into the back of her vehicle.  You loaded your bike into the trunk and joined her in the front.  By the time you arrived at her place Red had passed out, Undyne looked at you and you just shrugged.  You both knew how hard it was to wake up Sans sober.  Grumbling to herself she picked him up fireman style and threw him on the couch inside, he didn’t even stir.  

Hours sitting on the floor with the girls left your legs aching and asleep.  Alphys and Undyne had both fallen asleep but it was too late to try to ride home.  You knew Edge was at Papyrus and Sans’ apartment but he was probably also asleep and wouldn't take kindly to having to retrieve his drunk brother.

 

Sighing you stood up and looked at Red still sprawled on the couch so you leaned down and shook him a little.  He just rolled over and faced the couch back.  “Red!” you hissed quietly and shook him again, “let me on the couch dude my ass hurts.”  You put your hands under him and sat him up against the back of the couch and sat down where his head had been, sinking into the couch much to the relief of your body.  Looking away from the tv to where Red was sitting awkwardly asleep next to you, you saw he was slipping against the back of the couch.  Quickly you caught him and held him up, if he woke up you could probably get him to take you home, but he was still drunk and you weren’t sure if he would be able to teleport straight.  Gently you laid him down and set his head in your lap, you could smell the alcohol coming off of him mixed with mustard.  It was such a weird smell and you missed Sans but there wasn’t anything you could do about it now and you laid your head back against the couch and closed your eyes, at least you were warm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One wrong turn and you're in hot water.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have you heard the one about the burglar who robbed a music shop? (see end notes for answer)

Sans woke up sometime in the early morning before the sun had risen and hugged his pillow.  Then he froze and opened his eyes and looked up.  There you were, head back against the couch, mouth open slightly, and asleep.  His head was on your lap and you appeared oblivious to the whole situation.  Sans felt his face burn with magic and the room lit up in blue light, he didn’t know where he was as he wasn’t facing the tv, not that he would have figured it out in his confused and flustered state.  He realized his arms were still wrapped around you and his face burned brighter, his arms squeezed you gently.  You grumbled about the light and he ducked his face to smother the light and smiled, then he thought about why he would have woken up in your lap like this and his light extinguished along with his eyes.  Angry at Red he stubbornly refused to let you go and closed his eyes, falling back asleep.

 

When the sun had finally started to rise you were awoken by the sound of Undyne in the kitchen and the worst crick in your neck of your life.  You moved to stretch and felt a weight on your lap and something wrapped around your waist.  It was Sans, not Red, your breath caught in your throat, heart pounding at a speed that probably would have scared a doctor.  Your face flushed and gently you reached over to his skull and gently smoothed your hand against it afraid that he wouldn’t actually be there.

“Wake up Sans, I need to go to the bathroom.”  Slowly he opened his eyes and looked up into your too close face, his face burst into blue and he tried to sit up so quickly that he fell off of you and the couch.  A laugh exploded out of you and you quickly tried to stem the laughter that followed.  Looking down at him you saw the panic on his face muddled with the blue light that had sprung to his cheeks.  His eyes shifted back and forth and before he could teleport away you grabbed his jacket sleeve.

“Sans wait, please.”  He blinked up at you and you took that for his agreement so you ran to the bathroom.  When you returned he was still sitting on the floor now on the phone with Papyrus so you walked into the kitchen rubbing your neck knowing Undyne had been waiting for you.  The moment she saw you she high fived you and you were positively beaming.  Waving her off before she could say anything you went back to the living room, but Sans was gone.  Your phone sat on the couch where you had been sitting, a single text read “sorry”  and you knew he wasn’t talking about bailing.  All the joy leached out of you and you went to Undyne to ask for a ride home, too frustrated and upset to ride your bike home.  The entire way to your apartment you could hear her grumbling about idiots who deserved as ass kicking.  

  
  


After you showered you went back to bed, your body exhausted from sitting up on the couch all night and ignored your phone until you woke back up later in the afternoon. You were disappointed you hadn’t heard from Sans again, why did he just ignore everything?  You screamed into your pillow and then texted him yourself.

“Sans we need to talk, please”

“he’s gone sweetheart”

“Are you fucking kidding me!”  “Don’t you dare make a joke about sex Red I’m warning you.”

“you’re no fun, you are a wonderful pillow though” 

“And you are a terrible drunk Red”  

“i  _ bone _ know what to tell you doll”  You rolled your eyes, and rolled over in your bed thrashing under the tangled sheets.  “thank you”

A small smile spread over your face and you slowly typed your response. “You’re welcome Red. you should probably maybe try to fix this y’know, in your world.”  you didn’t get another response for about an hour at which point you were just trolling through the internet mindlessly.

“i know”  you looked at your phone for a moment in the silence and then it started ringing loudly and vibrating in your hand.  Nearly dropping it you saw it was your father calling. 

“Hey dad, what’s up?”

“Hey honey are you packed?  We’ll be coming to pick you up in a few minutes.”

“Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccckkkk”  You jumped up from your chair knocking it backwards and whipped around in a circle to look at your apartment in panic.  “Make it ten minutes and I’ll be ready.”

“You forgot didn’t you” it wasn’t really a question, just an exasperated statement.

“Love you dad see you soon!” you hung up and swore to and at yourself diving under your bed for your dufflebag.  With everything going on with the monsters you had forgotten, this was the week your family went camping in the mountains.  It was some family bonding thing they had tried one year when you were little and now it was the only way for your parents to get your siblings back into town.  You had already taken off of work for the trip at the beginning of the year and you actually enjoyed the annual trips as it gave you a chance to see your family without any expectations.  Not to mention it was the perfect time of year for it.  Under the shadow of Mt. Ebbot the transition from Summer to Fall was the nicest [art of the year, minimal rain, just enough heat for comfy tank top weather, and the nights were cool enough for your bike rides home to be rather enjoyable.  

 

Ten minutes later true to your word you were packed and waiting outside, checking the charge on your battery charger for your phone.  When your parents pulled up the back seat door swung open.

“Oh look, it’s the slacker.”  Your brother smiled at you, you hadn’t seen him since the last camping trip.  He was a couple years older than you and had moved away as soon as he graduated surprising you by getting a really decent job.  Now if he could only hold down a relationship.  Past him was your younger sister, she had elected to go to college out of state so you had seen her more recently on her winter break.  She was glued to her phone, typing away at a speed that spelled autocorrect failures.

“Hey guys, scoot, ass.”  That last bit was directed at your brother who then held his hand over his heart in mock hurt and moved to the middle seat.  When you shoved your bag over the back of the seat into the trunk your sister looked up at you and smiled before returning her attention to her phone.  Admittedly your relationship with your siblings had definitely gotten better as soon as you all had moved out of the house and didn’t  have to spend every day looking at each other.

On the drive up the mountain you got a text from Frisk asking if you wanted to go see a movie with them and M.K., you knew this was code for “hey we wanna go see a movie that Toriel doesn’t approve of and need a willing adult to get in.”  

“Sorry kid I forgot I have that camping trip this weekend.”  A few moments passed before they responded again.

“That’s fine, we can wait.”  You shook your head and opened your group chat between the girls, the bros, and yourself and told them the same thing, much to their disappointment, and you put your phone on energy saver mode and shoved it in your pocket.

 

While your brother helped your mom set up the tents, your father being absolutely useless with them, you helped set up the campfire.  You were a good ways up the mountain and if you walked about twenty minutes away you would have the perfect view of the city below, but you eyes weren’t drawn down but up.  You remember the story Frisk told you about falling down into the Underground from a hole at the top and from what they told you the barrier entrance was a few miles from your camp site.  You didn’t tell anyone about your desire to see what it was like, you knew it was a sore subject for most monsters as they didn’t want to set foot in that place again if they could help it.  

 

Setup done and everyone settled in you listened to the idle conversation around you trying your hardest to ignore the ache in your chest and the weight in your stomach.

“____.  ____! __-” you looked up realizing someone was calling your name, your brother was waving you over.  “Come on sis, walk with me and dish.”  standing up stiffly from your spot on the ground you stretched, dusted off your rear and joined him.  Your sister was busy gushing about school to your parents.  Your brother lead you to the cliff that overlooked the city and sat down dangling his feet off the edge, you sat further back with a healthy respect for the drop below.  He had heard from your parents about your friends and he was dying for the details, who were they, what were they like, what kinds of monsters were they, did Papyrus really only cook spaghetti? When you got to the part about the weird multidimensional hullabaloo he moved closer to you and put his hands on his knees, enraptured.  He loved all things scifi, it was why he had studied to get a job with a tech company, he wanted to push the boundaries on what was modern technology.  Maybe you should introduce him to Alyphs you pondered, he would probably lose his shit. Yes definitely, you could use it as bait to have him visit more often.  You told him about your friends and their counterparts and the world they came from.  His mouth formed a thin line when you told him about how much darker their world was but he kept his thoughts to himself.

“Do mom and dad know about this?”

“Are you kidding me? NO! They wouldn’t get it, we’ve been trying to keep it under wraps.  Anyway could you imagine the panic?  Everyone has finally accepted them for the most part, or at least accepted their existence, and besides this will pass eventually.  They are behaving.”  For the most part, you thought to yourself.  Your brother shook his head and laid back on the ground, the sun was setting and the sky was bathed in pinks and oranges.  

“Well ok then.”  and that was all he said on the subject.  For as long as you could remember you shared everything with your brother and he with you, even if you both fought or pissed each other off.  Since he had been gone you guys hadn’t talked as much so it was a relief to have him here again if only for a week.  

“You like him don’t you?”

“Who?” you looked at your brother with narrowed eyes.

“This Sans guy, I could tell by the way you talked about him, sis.”  You stammered for a second before shutting your mouth and looking away. “You’re fuckin’ blushing ____.”

“I don’t blush bro.”

“The hell you don’t.”

“It’s just the sunset.”

“Yea, uh huh, sure.”  He chuckled to himself and you smiled.

“You’re right.”

“Of course I am.  I am a know it all after all.”

“That isn’t usually a good thing to call yourself dude.”

“I’m taking it back, repurposing it.”  you both continued like that for a while until he looked at you and promised he wouldn’t tell your parents.  He could tell that you were hurting over this and he was nothing short of cliche when in an attempt to cheer you up he said that if Sans ever hurt you he was going to kick his ass.  You felt your brother would get along with Undyne and Papyrus just fine, if he ever visited for more than the camping trip that was.

 

The next few days were filled with as much family bonding activities as your parents could think of but between you and your siblings you made the best of it and honestly it was a good time.  For the first time in months you didn’t notice the ache in your chest and everything felt right with the world.  The second to last day on the trip your parents finally called it good and said they were out of ideas, you and your siblings were free to do whatever you wanted.  For your sister that meant hiking over to the clearing, laying out her blanket and taking a nap in the sun, for you it meant hiking up the mountain to satisfy you curiosity, and for your brother it meant following you whether you wanted him to or not.  You didn’t mind as it meant you got to spend more time with him and hopefully show him something cool, but first you had to find something cool.  

 

Your first goal was to look for the barrier exit since it was a closer hike than the peak of the mountain.  The closer you got to the location Frisk had told you about the more you felt as if you were being watched.  Your brother was perfectly oblivious to any such feelings so you tried to shrug it off.  By the time you found the cave opening the feeling had passed.  It didn’t look special, just a well carved opening into the side of the mountain so you walked inside it, your brother hot on your heels.  The deeper you went the more interesting everything got and before long you found yourself in a large room with a bed of golden flowers.  There was a vague familiarity about the flowers and you recognized them as the ones that graced the outside of the library, carved and painted into the stone.  The actual flowers had long since died out according to history, but here they were.

“I hope no one minds if I bring a few of these back with us,” you said to your brother while you kneeled down and pulled a few of them out of the ground, careful to maintain some of their roots.  “Remember what our history teacher told us in grade school?  These things used to be everywhere!”  

“I remember,” he shrugged, flowers didn’t really phase him, unless they had eyes.  He yelped and stepped back.  Concerned you looked up at him and then down to where he was staring and sure enough there was a golden flower, looking at you.  You sat back on your heels in surprise.  Of all the monsters you had met, none had ever mentioned a flower.  

“Hello.”  The flower looked at you with skeptical eyes.

“Howdy.”  So it could speak.  Suddenly your brother was kneeling beside you, “Hey there.”  The flower looked at both of you for a moment and an awkward silence filled the air in the room.  You bet if you had a knife you could have made a visible cut in the air.  

“So uh… are you here alone?  I thought all the monsters moved down to the city.”  Still it didn’t speak. “Ummmm, ok.”  Your brother looked at you and shrugged.  “Hey, do you know Frisk?”  The flower perked up immediately at Frisk’s name.

“You know Frisk?! Are they ok?”

“Yea little dude they are fine.”

“That’s good, I keep waking up back in the Underground but I was told I couldn’t leave if I found myself here.  Something about worlds colliding or something.”  The flower looked dejected so you cautiously shuffled over and sat beside it.  

“So you aren’t actually from here then? I mean this world?”  It shook its head and shrugged its leaves.  “What’s your name?”

“Flowey.”  

“Ok Flowey, can I ask why you were told to stay here alone?” 

“Apparently the Flowey from this world lives down here alone, he got pretty upset when this started and he made Frisk tell me I couldn’t leave because he didn’t want anyone to know where he was.”  

“Why?” Flowey shrugged.  “Ok but wouldn’t everyone have seen him over there?  Like wouldn’t they know he existed by seeing him in your world?”  

“He hides, a lot.  Actually he keeps hiding under the house.”

“Who’s house?”

“My mom’s, and Frisk’s”  

“Toriel’s your mother?!”  Your brother jumped at how loud your voice got and looked at you curiously.

“Yea, why?”  When you saw pictures of Toriel’s child it had looked like her, a little goat monster.

“It’s just that, well, y’know.”  You gestured with your hands.

“Didn’t anyone tell you what happened?  Maybe no one remembers here, that would explain a lot.”  He looked so sad so you checked your phone, you were surprised you had service and you made a call.

“Hey Frisk.”  You put the phone on speaker and set it down between you and Flowey.

“Frisk?” Flowey said surprised and looked at you, you smiled.

“____? Aren’t you camping?”  Flowey brightened up at Frisk’s voice and started swaying where he was.

“Yea, look  I went through that barrier exit you told me about and I found someone here.”

“YOU FOUND FLOWEY?!?!”   You leaned back from your phone, impressed your phone speaker hadn’t busted.

“Yea, well sort of, I found the other Flowey.”

“Where are you right now? Never mind Sans can find you I’ll be right there.”  They hung up and you were sat there sharing a look with your brother and Flowey.  Flowey had perked up when Frisk said they were on there way.  After a few minutes Frisk and San appeared next to your small group and Frisk immediately ran over to where you sat with Flowey.  Your brother sat listening to the two of them while also eyeing you and Sans.  You knew that look on his face and you looked away embarrassed.  Sans was standing off to the side, his hands in his pockets and a subtle blue dusting his face.  Groaning at the unease building in your chest you stood up and walked over to him crossing your arms.

“Hey Sans.” he looked at you and gave you a small smile.

“hey.” the silence stretched until you felt your unease smolder into irritation.

“Look Sans we need to talk.”

“i know.”

“When?”  Desperation leaked into your voice and his eyes searched your face, his smile faltered.  “Do you even care Sans?  I’m not stupid ok.”  Sans’ eyes opened wide and he held his hands up in front of him.

“of course i care! i just-” he threw up his hands and looked at you imploringly, as if he was trying to get you to understand.

“Sa-”

“____!”  you turned around at Frisk’s call, they were waving you over rapidly.  You looked back at Sans and lifted your hand as if you to reach for him, his eyes followed your hand, but you dropped your hand and walked away.  Sans ground the heel of his hand into his eye and took a deep breath.

“What’s up kid...z?”  you looked between Flowey’s hope filled, wide eyes, and Frisks smug grin with a slight squint.

“We talked,” Frisk gestured to themselves and Flowey and then to your brother.  “And we thought that maybe Flowey could stay with you! You know, when he’s stuck here from his world.  Then he won’t be alone.  And when our Flowey comes back he can just come back here but honestly I think staying with you would do him some good.”  The entire time you were listening you felt your stomach sink, you were more than happy to help this Flowey out but the way Frisk said you would have a good effect on the Flowey of this world, something was up.  Seeing your face your brother spoke up.

“I think it’s a great idea, someone needs to make sure you don’t just veg all day.”

“You honestly think anyone could stop me from vegging if I wanted?  I haven’t even had time to do nothing lately.  The first time I tried we went camping instead!”  Sighing you shook your head and then looked back at Flowey, the look on his face played your heart strings like a fiddle. “Fine.”  A small cheer sounded from Frisk and you shook your head. 

“But look Flower Bud, I don’t go home till tomorrow so if you end up switching back before I can show you where I live find Frisk and I’ll come get you ok?”  Tapping your chin you looked at Frisk.  “How do you plan to convince Flowey, our Flowey, to stay though?”

“I’m sure you’ll be fine but uh,” an indiscernible expression crossed their face, “if not I can come help.”  They shrugged at you and turned back to talk to Flowey, who you decided you would call Flower Bud for the ease of your mind.  Your brother smiled at you and you gave him one of Papyrus’ signature squints before turning back to Sans.  He refused to meet your gaze and instead looked out towards a door that lead further into the underground.  You couldn’t make him talk to you, and you couldn’t make him just accept how felt, but you also couldn’t stop your eyes and cheeks from heating up in frustration and hurt.  Something wrapped around your leg and when you looked Flower Bud was giving you a sympathetic hug, patting your calf with a vine.  

“Well alright then,” you took a deep breath, “no point in exploring here any further right now I’ll come back on my own later.  Let’s go bro.  Flower Bud you can come with us if you like or I can come back for you tomorrow.”  Flower Bud elected to wait, he didn’t want Flowey upset just yet if he came back beforehand.  Frisk headed back over to Sans and you and your brother waved good bye to Flower Bud.  When you headed out past Sans your face got hot again.  Sans saw your eyes get glassy, he saw the stubborn set of your jaw as you tried to stuff everything down and he took a step forward.  All he ever seemed to do lately was cause you pain, all he kept thinking about was holding you that night he woke up with his head on your lap.  Then he blinked in surprise as you stalked up to him, pain and anger and stubborn determination cut into your face.  You stopped inches from him and poked him in the chest.

  
“You don’t get to decide that you don’t deserve me Sans, you don’t get to decide your worth like that.  It’s unfair to me and everyone else because you deserve so much more than you believe.”  Your voice wavered on the last few words and you quickly turned away and drug your brother from the Underground.  Frisk looked up at Sans with a smirk as he looked wide eyed out after you only for an equally surprised and confused Red to take his place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He was after the lute.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why shouldn't you insult an alien? (see end for answer)

The week ____ had gone camping had been one of Red’s most uncomfortable weeks as he struggled to figure out how he was supposed fix the mess he made.  Honestly, this turn of events still had him stopping in mild disbelief sometimes.  To think that in his self disgust and selfishness he had scared away the one kind human he had met on the surface only for the universe to force him face to face with the same human in a different reality where he couldn’t bring himself to do the same thing again.  In almost the same situation to boot.  Now the switches back to his world were taking longer and longer and the switches back to San’s world were coming faster each time, he was lucky to get more than a few hours in his world at a time over the span of a couple of days and he blamed that for his avoidance of the situation.   But when he switched back again near the end of the week he found himself in Die’s apartment and there was his world’s ____, sitting on the floor staring at him with apprehension.  Sans had introduced her to Die and Papyrus earlier in the week Red had discovered, and she and Die had become fast friends, though he avoided being in the same place as her for obvious reasons.  The similarities between her’s and Die’s relationship and ____ from Sans’ world and Undyne was almost funny, but also terrifying as Die was glaring at him with a promise in her eyes.  A promise that she wouldn’t hesitate to annihilate him at the first sign of fuckery.  So he sat there stiffly, grinding his teeth.  He knew he needed to fix this but he didn’t know how, he couldn’t look her in the eyes and he was so tempted to fall back on his lewd jokes to avoid dealing with it.

“look sweetheart-” “Listen here asshole.”  They both stopped at the other’s voice and Red hesitated, so she continued.

“I’m tired of being afraid of you ok, I’m tired of feeling like shit because of you!”  Her voice cut through the air laced with bitterness and Red blinked in surprise, the verbal slap ringing around in his head.  Yet all he could say was, “i’m sorry, sweetheart.”  

“I’m not your sweetheart!” there was that look, the same one the other ____ gave Red when she got tired of being called sweetheart.  A small smile tugged at his mouth but it quickly fell away.

“yea,” he bowed his head and dug his fingers into the back of his skull. “i am sorry though, i should’nt’ve...i should’ve…”  This was a lot harder to do sober.  He put his elbows on his knees and rested his forehead against his hands.  One deep breath, and then another one before he finally looked her in the eyes.  Anger and concern warred on her face.

“That’s not fair, don’t give me that face,” she huffed with a frown.  “I haven’t forgiven you.”  She ran her hands through her hair, it was something her counterpart did when she was stressed Red had noticed.  Her hair was a bit longer than her counterpart’s too he noticed.  Red looked away from her again, their first meeting playing over in his mind.  He didn’t see Die give her an encouraging, albeit it wicked, smile.  He didn’t see her get up and walk over to him.  He didn’t notice her until he saw her feet approach and looked up.  She was looming over him, the burning anger in her eyes caught his eye lights and held them as she grabbed the front of his shirt to pull him up.

“You don’t get to decide if you deserve help or not asshat, and after all that shit you put me through I’m just stubborn enough to make you understand that.”  She released his shirt and stood up straight looking down her nose at him.  Red’s face was drawn in confusion and surprise, his cheeks glowing red softly.  

 

Then he was looking at Frisk in the Underground, ____ walking away with an unfamiliar man.  Fuck just happened?  The scene replayed over in his head and his blush didn’t go away.

“Red!” He flinched and looked down at Frisk.

“I need to go home now, can you help?”  He smiled his usual wide smile and in a moment they were gone.

  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Back in Red’s world Sans found himself looking up at ____ in disbelief, his mind reeling.  Slowly he realized he wasn’t looking at ____ and he wasn’t in the Underground.  The ____ of this world stepped back startled and looked at Die.  Soul wringing in his chest Sans jumped up, why did this have to happen now?!  Why was he such an ass?  Energy flooded him as he screamed mentally.  He needed to get back, it could be days before he switched home.

“Blue?”  He twitched at ____’s voice but reminded himself it wasn’t the ____ he needed.  Die looked at him knowingly and her already toothy grin grew larger.

“It’s about damn TIME marshmallow!” He sat down defeated and put his head in his hands.  

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

You felt better, not much but it was enough.  Your brother on the other hand was ecstatic, he loved watching you handle your shit like that and he always felt immense pride when you stepped up.  He draped his arm over your shoulder and pulled you into a walking, half hug.  You were going to be just fine, he was sure of it. 

Eventually he distracted you with your new problem of a flower monster roommate, who was probably going to be a huge pain in the ass when Flowey came back if you had gleaned anything from the conversation.  Your actions still played over in your head but you were actually looking forward to learning more about Flower Bud so you focused on that.  When you both returned to camp it was getting late and since it was the last night you enjoyed the sacred tradition of marshmallows slightly too burnt in your s’mores.  

 

In the morning before your family was up you left them a message and said you would return in a few hours.  You hiked as fast as you could back to the barrier exit and were relieved to see Flower Bud waiting for you.  You didn’t pretend to understand how he moved around but you had nicked the pitcher for him to ride in until you got to the city.  You prayed to whatever being was listening that he wouldn’t switch back halfway there. He was incredibly relieved to see you and once he was situated you headed back to camp.  By the time you got there everything was packed up and ready to go.  Your father was pretty oblivious and only commented on how pretty the flower was that you were carrying, you winked at Flower Bud when he blushed.  Your mother on the hand took one look at him and raised an eyebrow, her nonverbal demand for answers.  You shrugged, “he needs somewhere to stay, he’s all alone up here.”  She pursed her lips but said no more on the subject just waved you to the car.

The trip home was pretty uneventful, everyone was ready for a real bed and some less family time.  You would call that a successful camping trip any day.  When your parents dropped you off you hugged everyone goodbye, telling your sister that she needed to “kick names and take ass” at her school which drew a laugh from her.  Your brother hugged you so tight you stopped breathing, he promised to try to keep in touch but you both knew that between the two of you that was a fantasy, you were both absolute garbage at keeping in touch.  He then wished Flower Bud luck and you told your parents you would see them in a few weeks.  Finally they left and you went inside.

 

“Alright Flower Bud, here we are.”  You set down the pitcher and he disappeared under the tile only to pop up near the couch. 

“This is so exCITING!” You chuckled and threw your duffle bag on your bed.  How was this going to work you wondered, you didn’t spend a whole lot of time at home anymore but you didn’t want to leave him alone, especially not until you met Flowey and settled that problem.  You quickly grabbed a large bowl and ran outside to get some dirt for the plants you had taken from the Underground, you mother had helped you keep them alive through the night but you knew you needed to get some supplies.  After you set the newly planted flowers on the windowsill you collapsed on the couch and sighed, running your fingers through your hair.  You looked over and saw Flower Bud had gotten onto the couch next to you, was he coming out of it?  You shook your head.

“What’s up Flower Bud?”

“Are you ok?”

“You’re sweet, but yea I’m fine.”  You smiled at him, it was small but it still reached your eyes.  “So uh, you wanna watch tv or something?  I didn’t really have plans for the day.”  He looked at you for a moment seeming to wilt a little.

“I wish I could see my mom.” If word’s had ever broken your heart before.

“I know dude, hey look you ever watch any of these?  You opened up your netflix account and found the animated film section.  He nodded but eventually you got him to pick one he hadn’t seen and together you lifted his mood.  It was like having a kid in your house that you needed to take care of, the thought of such a responsibility reared up and you took deep breaths.  Once this was all passed you would probably have your apartment to yourself again, no turning back now though.  After the first film ended you let him pick another one and went to unpack your bag and take a shower.  You needed to do laundry again you noticed as all the clothes in your bag ended up in the basket. 

After your shower you went back out to check on Flower Bud and was startled at how angry he looked.  “You ok little man?”

“Who the FUCK are you?!”  Oh…oh dear god why.  Frisk you little shit, you thought to yourself.  

“So you’re Flowey.”  He looked taken aback and then glared harder, his teeth forming points in his sneer.  “Look dude I’m a friend of Frisk’s, I found you, well the other you up in the mountains and Frisk decided there wasn’t a point in him being all alone, like you, so he’s staying with me until this stuff blows over.”

“Oh isn’t that just great! Who else knows about this!?”   God he was just looking for a fight wasn’t he?

“Me, my bro who lives very far away, Frisk, and Sans.”

“Why does the smiling trashbag know?”  You raised an eyebrow at him.

“Because he was Frisk’s ride.  You don’t gotta stay man, I mean Frisk hoped you would, and we agreed to keep you a secret from anyone in this world but the option is yours.  Flower Bud knows the way back.”  Shrugging you turned away and entered the kitchen, pulling some frozen nuggets and fries from the freezer.  Flowey was probably the only monster who didn’t change physically when he switched, unless you counted that sneer that seemed to be stuck on his face.  Flowey followed your actions with his eyes as he thought over what you said.  “If you’re gonna stay you need to tell me so I can make enough food, you aren’t eating mine.”  He blinked, why were you so unphased by this?  You turned the oven on and laid out enough food for two on the baking sheet, he couldn’t see what you were doing but you had a feeling he would be just curious enough to stay. After a few minutes you heard a small huff and when you looked back he had turned the movie back on and was watching it intently with a sour expression.  You slipped your phone out of your pocket, “you owe me kid, big time” you hit send and put your phone back in your pocket. 

 

When your simple lunch was done you brought both plates to the couch along with the ketchup and set Flowey’s on the couch next to him.  He sniffed at it and squinted at it.

“Don’t give me that ish, I’m exhausted and after campfire food this is heaven,” You squirted ketchup onto you plate and offered him some.

“Get that shit away from me.”  He shoved a fry into his mouth and turned away.  Geez.  You put the condiment down on the coffee table and ate your food in silence.  You had only finished half of your food when you realized Flowey was already done, when he was distracted you saw an almost content look on his face but the moment he saw you staring he went back to glaring.  The movie playing was one of the new Disney films, you quite enjoyed it but looking at this salty little flower you wondered if you should change it.

“Would you rather watch something else?  I can put something a little less childish on if it’ll make you happy.”  You reached for the controller to your game system but it was snatched away by vines.

“No! I mean, it’s fine.”  He set the controller back down after shooting you a look and you smiled, he was low key adorable, and picked up his plate to take it to the kitchen.

 

The next afternoon you had a surprise visit from Frisk, they had a backpack filled with snacks and movies and the most innocent smile on their face you ever saw.  You saw right through it. 

“He’s in there shortstop.”  They nodded their understanding and walked over to where Flower Bud sat watching another Disney movie.  You were pretty sure he had been watching them all night once he switched back in.  “Hey does Toriel know you’re here?”

“Cinnamom dropped me off.”  You looked back at the door expected her to walk in.

“And she just left you here?”

“Yea, I’ll call her when I’m ready to leave.”

“Dude, you can’t just show up without letting me know what if I had been out, or was about to go out.”

“You weren’t.”

“Cheeky.”  Shaking your head you walked back into the living room and eyed everything Frisk had brought, it looked like they were in it for the long haul.  

 

Frisk spoke to Flower Bud for a few minutes before Flowey switched back in, he took one look at Frisk and hissed his displeasure.

“This is your fault!”

“Hi Flowey.” 

“Don’t you ‘hi Flowey’ me!” Frisk just smiled, you guessed they actually missed the little turd.

“I’m glad you decided to stay with ____.”  He looked away, his petals curling around his face a little.

“Yea well, they have food and this thing called Netflix so if I’m gonna keep showing up here I might as well wait it out.”  You raised an eyebrow but kept your mouth shut, whatever worked you thought.

 

Flowey and Frisk sat in silence for hours just watching movies and for a moment you wondered if this is what Flower Bud did with his Frisk.  They were a family over there, was that what Frisk was hoping to achieve here?  You didn’t even know why he was hiding in the first place, you would need to ask Frisk later in private.  At some point you fell asleep on the floor, having given the couch up to the kids.  You weren’t sure how long you slept but when you cracked open your eyes you saw a vine held marker dangerously close to your face.

“You do that, I tell your mom where you are you little weed.”

“Told you Flowey,” Frisk snickered from the couch as he glared at you and recapped the marker.  You got up and checked your face in your phone, luckily he hadn’t got you yet.  Then you saw what time it was.

“Jesus Frisk it’s like dinner time you gotta get home.”

“But-”

“No buts I have work in the morning and I’m not hosting any sleepovers tonight.”  Reluctantly they called Toriel’s phone and shortly after that bid both you and Flowey farewell.  When you returned from escorting Frisk out you saw Flower Bud had returned.  You were curious as to why Flowey had been out so long this time was the crossing finally passing?  You sent Sans a text.

“still me sweetheart” and groaned to yourself.  Flower Bud looked at you curiously and you forced a smile.

“Alright Bud what do you wanna eat for dinner?”

 

It was days before you saw Flowey again, it was days before any of your friends returned again.  Your previous fear on the crossing becoming permanent came back in full force with each passing night, you worried so much that you made yourself sick and your meals shrunk in size.  Flower Bud grew concerned as he watched you check your phone more and more often.  After the fourth full day of them being gone you called Die and set up a hangout.  With Flowey being gone you decided to bring Flower Bud with you since he knew Die and the rest of the crew from his world.  You had Die pick you up so you could transport your laundry and make headway on the pile that had accumulated since the camping trip.

Die took one look at you and stopped to pick up alcohol on the way to Undyne’s house.  Her words fell somewhere along the line of “you look like shit, we’re gonna have to fix that”.  You didn’t drink often, mainly because you were pretty picky on what you drank but also because you really only liked to drink with friends.  You had tried getting drunk once in college but either you made your drinks to weak or you were just the most boring drunk in the world, you hadn’t tried again since then.  You tried to tell Die what you preferred but she ignored you with a wicked grin, and then she hid the bag when she got back in the car.  You shared a concerned look with Flower Bud and wondered if you should have left him at home or sent him to Frisk.  He could always leave if it got bad.  You were also concerned that with work the next day you were going to regret whatever came next.  You knew she wouldn't force you to drink if you really didn't want to so you let yourself enjoy the evening.

When you got to Undyne’s apartment you were relieved to see Alphys there regardless of how long she was here for.  Just having a familiar face eased the boulder on your chest and a few hours later you and Die were playing games on the floor drinking whenever someone lost.  You forced her to play a Kart racing game with you knowing she wouldn’t be able to completely wreck you in it so the drinking was fairly shared.  The contents of the bag she had hidden were some pretty hard liquors and some mixers.  Every time you tried to just drink the soda she somehow knew and would take your drink away to remedy the situation, you knew she was just trying to cheer you up in her own way and it was helping, you were finally relaxing and having fun.  

 

The front door burst open almost off the hinges.

“ALPHYS, oh Alphys darling there you are.”  You turned to the odd voice and blinked a few times at the robot that was now standing behind the couch.  You had only seen a few of Mettaton’s shows and only because your friends made you watch the specials when they came on tv.  Why was he here?  Alphys did mention she built him but he always went to her lab for repairs.

“Alphys you have to help me, he is RUINING my show!” 

“W-who is?”  Alphys looked at Mettaton confused.

“The other me!  I mean really he has no tact.  He pops in halfway through a recording and changes everything.  Wardrobes, lines, my poor assistant is losing his mind.”  The way he moved when he spoke added a lot more drama to the description than you thought it warranted so you just sipped at your drink in silence.  “I can’t just stop everything because of this little fiasco with realities!  I have a big party to attend next week and I’m the guest of honor.”

“Well, what d-do you want me to do about it?” Alphys asked him.

“Look metal head I know the guy, there isn’t anything we  _ can _ do about it.  He’s more stubborn than me, and full of himself to boot.”  You covered your mouth at Die’s words hiding your smile.  Mettaton didn’t seem to notice the slight against himself and just sighed dramatically and slumped against the back of the couch.

“I’m doomed, and if I’m not then salvaging this is going to be absolute hell.”  His phone began ringing with a ringtone that you could have sworn was his own voice.  “I have to run dears,” he finally noticed you and gave an alarmingly big smile. “I will need to try to visit more often, I didn’t know you had such interesting friends Alphys she must be fan.” And with that he sauntered out of the apartment, the door closing behind him was luckily not broken.  You waited a few second, honestly you waited as long as you could, before you burst into manic laughter.  Did that seriously just happen?  What Tuesday morning drama series did you wander into?  Alphys took her glasses off and pressed her head into her hands, shaking it slightly.  You patted her leg sympathetically and returned to your game with Die.  You knew Undyne didn’t really like Mettaton so you weren’t surprised that Die felt the same.

 

By the time you were ready to go home both you and Die had had quite a bit to drink, Die more than you because when she lost in the game she didn’t just take a few sips like you did. You were well into being tipsy, if you hadn’t finally called it on the alcohol you would probably be as wasted as Die was.  Doc was doing her best to handle the now very drunk Die as you collected your laundry, Flower Bud had gone home earlier to sleep, and not be around Die.  He knew exactly how she got when drunk, although he neglected to warn you before leaving.  Already regretting your life choices you texted Sans’ phone informing the recipient that you were stuck at Undyne’s and needed help getting home.  Within moments Red appeared near the front door and you waddled your basket over to him, exhausted and boozed up.

“damn sweetheart, what the hell happened here?”  He looked over at the increasingly loud Die as she fawned over Doc and your liquor flushed face.  

“S’nothin, she was trying to help me feel better is all. Can you take me home please.”  you tripped over your foot when the basket knocked against your shin the wrong way and Red caught you and kept you standing. You could see the question in his eyes behind his large smirk.  “I’m not drunk and I’m tired so chop chop skeletor.”  You expected him to make a lewd comment or even pull his usual trick of holding you too close to teleport but he seemed to chew these thoughts over and disregard all of them and took you home as you were.  You stumbled as your stomach caught up with you, a little more tender with the alcohol in it, and set your basket down.  You needed some water, and maybe some bread to soak up your stomach acid.  You waved to your couch and made a shoosh sound, gesturing towards the sleeping flower by the window.  Red walked over to the couch and took a seat, then stood back up and moved the empty bag of cookies Flower Bud had left there.  When you sat down with him he gave you a long hard look before saying anything.

“y’know, i’ve never seen you drink before.  honestly thought you didn’t.”  You chewed on your slice of bread for a moment.

“I usually don’t, unlike you I don’t feel a need to unless there is a reason.  Parties, celebrations, Die deciding I needed to loosen up because I looked like a wreck.”  You put the glass of water to your mouth to stop yourself from talking.  Red was acting weird too, he hadn’t even tried to hit on you once since he picked you up.  Did something happen, you wondered, he was restraining himself and it was a little worrying.  Before you could ask him he leaned forward, one arm on the back of the couch.

“what’s going on sweetheart?”  You kept the glass to your lips but didn’t drink, he looked so much like Sans right now, he had such a similar look of concern on his face and beyond his teeth, his lower voice, and his eyes you felt for a moment it could have been him.  You swallowed thickly, your eyes heated up and your vision went blurry.  

“What if something happens, what if I never see hi- them again?  What happens if everyone gets stuck?”  First one tear and then another slipped out of your eyes as your body started to shake.  You quietly cursed the alcohol for letting your emotional control slip and tried to bury yourself in the resounding anger.  

“what ifs are the worst thing to think about drunk, trust me.”

“I told you I’m not-”

“near enough.”  You couldn’t argue with that.  You choked down the rest of your bread and chased it down with some water before putting the glass down on the coffee table.  

“Guess we are both terrible drunks then.” Red chuckled.

“yea only if we are drinking to get away from something.” 

“Speaking of that.” You let the implied question hang in the air, desperate to think of something else before you lost control again.  He looked at your face for a moment lost in thought.

“i guess it's getting there.” he didn't offer any more information on the subject.  After a few more moments sitting in silence you turned the tv on and set the volume to a low murmur, Flower Bud didn't even stir.  

“it's funny isn't it, we both have shit to deal with but the people we need to talk to are in the wrong world.” Red leaned back against the arm of the couch, his face turned toward the tv and continued.  “like how fucked up is it that in some weird way both of us are here but we’re just the wrong version.”   He was right, voicing all the same thoughts you had every time you looked at him and saw Sans.  It was so messed up when you looked at him and felt a faint flutter of longing, knowing he wasn't who you really wanted.  Both of you connected to the other by what had to have a been one of the universe’s biggest practical jokes.  You took a shaky breath which drew his attention.  “come here, oh don't give me that look i’m not going to do anything.  this time.” he joked,  “i’m just returning the favor.” You were giving him a look but that didn't stop you from sliding across the couch and letting him hold you while you felt the traitorous tears stream down your face.  His jacket was padded enough that you were actually comfortable leaning against him.  After a few minutes the tears stopped, nothing was in your control except for you.  The least you could try to do was keep your spirits up so your friends stopped worrying about you, it was more than enough to know that they would be there for you whatever happened.  Whoever was there in the end, and whoever you lost.  No matter the outcome your heart was going to suffer a major blow and that knowledge didn't make it any easier to bear but you had to try if you were going to not hate yourself.

Exhausted you found yourself drifting off to the murmur of the tv and the sound of Red’s breathing.  On the cusp of sleep you smelled the faintest hint of ketchup believing it to be a dream.  You mumbled to yourself softly, so close to sleep you forgot who you were talking to. “I miss Sans.”  Something pressed into your hair and you heard soft words that found their way into your dreams.

  
  


Sans had switched back as you were falling asleep, finding you in his arms made his soul thrum through him gently.  You're face was still a little blotchy and there were dried tear streaks down your face.  He could smell the alcohol on you and his brow furrowed in concern, he knew you rarely drank.  Then you said those words, so obviously caught in a sleep like state.  Carefully so as to not wake you he pressed a kiss to the top of your head.

“i’m not letting go this time” he whispered into your hair and your hands had gripped his jacket subconsciously.  He stayed awake the entire time he was with you and an hour later when Red switched back he carried you to your bed and left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because you might hurt its feelings.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys I've picked out a few songs for our reader(s) and their Sanses, this is just to help get a feel for how I picture the characters and what they are going through. Listen to them top down to feel happier or bottom up to feel them feels we all hate to love.
> 
> Red - Can You Feel My Heart by Bring Me the Horizon  
> Red's Reader - Hope of Morning by Icon for Hire  
> Sans - Would You Rather by Crushed P  
> Sans' Reader - This Is My Year by Family Force 5
> 
> No joke today, unless you like them then I'll give you two next time.

The next morning you woke up in bed, your mouth tasted disgusting, you had a slight headache, and you were still in the same clothes as you wore yesterday.  But in spite of all of that you were left with a small smile on your face.  You could still remember the dream you had in the night, a dream where Sans had held you and told you he wouldn’t let you go.  Even if it was only a dream it helped you survive the morning ride to work.  Eventually as the day drug on and on the high from the dream faded and you settled back into your heavy hearted state.  

A week passed before any of your friends returned again, you spent as much of that time as you could with whoever was available in an attempt to enjoy yourself and keep an eye out for short switches.  You also kept tabs with Frisk as often as you could to keep track of the crossing, what they said was disheartening.  As the doubles they were seeing lined up the crossing slowed down to nearly an imperceptible rate.  They kept reassuring you that it was going to be fine and you tried your hardest to believe them.  Talking to Flower Bud you discovered that Frisk was exactly the same in both worlds, which was something that surprised you.  From what you had heard that no humans were constant across the worlds, not even your counterpart was exactly the same as you. But Frisk, Frisk was the exact same. Thinking about it caused your head to ache so you tried not to.  The longer Flower Bud was stuck in your world the sooner you decided to take him to Frisk’s house.  You didn’t want the kid-like monster to have to tag along with you all the time it wasn’t fair to him, nor was leaving him home alone.  And besides maybe it was a good idea for Flowey to meet the other versions of his parents to see that it was ok for him to come out of hiding.

 

After the night of your drinking excursion Red had quickly returned to his normal annoying self but you found yourself grateful for the normalcy of it. You spent more time with Edge during this time as well as he had finally given up on trying to ignore you.  As soon as he gave up he became as attached as Papyrus, in a much more...Edge sort of way.  While Papyrus was always encouraging you in his boisterous way, Edge’s way of showing affection fell heavy on criticism.  This sparked many disagreements between the two of you which always left one of you grumbling.  One memorable argument sparked one afternoon when you showed up at Sans’ and Papyrus’ apartment after making sure Flower Bud was at Frisk’s.  The moment you walked in, without knocking as had become your habit, you immediately flopped on the couch and closed your eyes, exhausted from work.  Red was already vegging on the couch so when Papyrus walked in and saw you both half sleeping on the couch he became irate.  With as much energy he had even after working all day he just didn’t seem to understand why you would stoop to his brother’s level.  After the day you had had you tried to ignore him, but that didn’t last very long and when you opened your eyes you snapped at him.

“Listen here you soggy sandwich! I’ve been working all day, and while my job might not be physically exhausting it can VERY mentally exhausting so bugger off would ya!”  Red was peering at you through slitted eyes, trying to feign sleep, his grin wider than normal, red sweat popping up on his forehead.  Edge had just stared at you flabbergasted, and with a huff just sat down on the couch in between the two of you and turned on a Mettaton show.  Red gave you a sneaky high five later that day.  

 

Of course the first person to switch back would have been Flowey, and of course he would have done it while at Frisk’s house.  As soon as you got home that night you had walked no more than a few feet inside the apartment before he started yelling at you.

“You broke your promise! You said you would keep my parents out of this!”  You held your hands up in surrender and waited out his verbal lashing.  When he had run out of steam you walked over to the couch and sat down.

“You wanna listen to what I have to say or not?  I brought your favorite,” you held up a bag of cookies that both Flower Bud and Flowey had taken to.  You had stopped by the store to pick it up when Frisk texted you about Flowey.  Reluctantly the little flower moved over to where you were and snatched the bag from your hands, taking it to the other side of the coffee table where he proceeded to tear it open.  “Alright then, we decided to let Flower Bud see his family since everyone has been gone so long.  We also figured if you met your parents from a world where they knew about you and had already accepted you it would be easier than meeting your parents from this world.”  He narrowed his eyes but kept eating his cookies.  “We also made sure that Flower Bud would get out as soon as either of them switched back so you wouldn’t be at risk.  I may be an ass but I’m trying to make sure you have your secrets still.”  the way you said that was a prod at him, even Frisk wouldn't tell you what his deal was. What you didn’t mention was that letting Flower Bud stay with his family had been a huge relief to you as you quickly realized having a roommate was one thing, but having a monster who was still basically a child to look out for was way above your paygrade.  Of which was already zero.  Flowey couldn’t really argue as much as he wanted to, he had no control over what his counterpart did and so far you had made sure he was kept a secret from anyone that really mattered.  He was interested in these other parents of his, they were nothing like his real parents from what he had seen when the switching first started but he kept his thoughts to himself.  He was never going to admit anything to this human, not even that he actually liked being around her.  She kept up with his attitude and never backed down, it was actually kind of fun he had realized.  

“Whatever, but if -”

“Yea, yea, if someone finds out I’m gonna regret it right? You’ve said this before, honestly though what are you gonna do kid.  I’m not saying you don’t have shit to figure out but you have shit to figure out.”  You leaned over the table and snatched the now half empty bag of cookies away from him.

“What the hell!”

“I’m ordering pizza for dinner and you don’t need to eat all of these right now.  I’m not buying more for a few weeks.”  He grumbled to himself eyeing the bag in your hands but made no move to argue with you.  

Flowey had barely made it halfway through his first slice of pizza before Flower Bud switched back.  You knew Flowey was gonna be pissed he didn’t get to eat his pizza.  When Flower Bud had reoriented himself he picked up Flowey’s abandoned pizza slice and looked at you.

“Hey I saw Red pop back before I ended up here.”  It took you a moment to register what he said but by that point you heard a knock at your door and you jumped up stumbling against the couch.  Flower Bud had woken up the night Red took you home after drinking with Die, and he had spoken to Sans about you when he saw him today.  Flower Bud was more aware than you gave him credit for, noticing each time you suddenly got sad and how you worked so hard to shove it away.  Sans had gotten antsy after hearing how you were.  Flower Bud wasn’t naive, he knew what was going on, he knew from the first time he had met you.  Now he watched as you nervously ran to the door, he saw you hesitate before opening it, and he saw your soul vibrating inside of you when you saw Sans standing on the other side of it.

 

When Sans saw you open the door he stood up straight, was he actually taller than you? Not much but just enough that you actually had to move your eyes a small fraction up to meet his.  How much did he actually slouch?  The smile on his face was bigger than you’d ever seen it and the look in his eyes...before you could even form a thought you were pulled into a hug.  You felt his ribs through his shirt, a solid reminder that this wasn’t another dream.  Hot tears of joy pricked at your eyes and you bent your head into his shoulder, pressing your face into the folds of his hood.  

“I don’t understand Sans.”  You felt his fingers stroke your hair.

“i told you, i wasn’t going to let go this time, not anymore.”

“I thought that was a dream.” Your voice came out an unsteady whisper and he held you tighter.  

“you were right y’know.”

“I know.”  he laughed and it rumbled through you.  Were you going to explode with this overwhelming joy inside of you?  Suddenly hyper aware of the limited time he probably had with you you pulled away.  You had a grin to rival his as you pulled him inside and shut the door.  Flower Bud had turned back to the tv with his pizza, blushing from the romantically charged air.  Sans followed you to the couch and when you sat down he pulled you close to him, pressing a kiss against your forehead.  Your cheeks hurt from smiling and his cheeks were the most adorable color blue. Your favorite color you decided.  After a comfortable moment of silence he bent his head to talk in your ear.

“hey, why are iguanas friendly?”  You blinked for a moment, you actually didn’t remember the punchline for this joke.

“Why?”

“because iguana hold your hand.”  as he said that he laced his fingers in yours and chuckled softly.  You were one hundred percent sure he could hear how fast your heart was racing.

“That’s just as bad the others.” you had laughed anyway.  The pizza sat forgotten, a sin against all pizza really.  The whole while Sans was back he held you close, repeatedly kissing your face and the top of your head, he enjoyed the way your soul seemed to vibrate every time he did so and he was beyond happy that you were no longer clouded over with negative emotions as you had been the last few times he had actually seen you.  He couldn’t promise that he was never going to hurt you again but he was going to try his damnedest.  

A couple of hours later, at least that was what it felt like you honestly hadn’t been keeping track of the time, you felt Sans pull away and when you looked up you saw Red looking as uncomfortable as he possibly could, his cheeks glowing red.  Your eyes widened and you jumped across the couch.  

“This is going to get awkward isn’t it.” Your fingers ran through the back of your hair.

“or very, very interesting.”  He grinned wickedly dispelling the previous awkwardness.  

“Oh god.”  You covered your face with you hands and started laughing, across the couch you heard him join in.  This was going to be a problem.  Flower Bud looked back at the two of you and rolled his eyes

“bout damn time though, it was getting annoying seeing that love sick look every time you looked at me sweetheart.”

“I did not!” you were indignant, but you knew he was poking fun at you.  Still giddy enough to dance around the apartment yet saddened that your moment with Sans was cut short you stood up to reheat the pizza, you still hadn’t eaten yet.  When you weren’t looking Red rubbed his face, he knew this was really going to get weird and normally he would have been all over taking advantage of the situation but something nagged at him when he thought about it. You didn’t offer him any of the pizza, you knew he was just going to take some anyway and when it was gone he left, poking fun at you again with an odd look on his face.  

 

    The crossing came to a head a few weeks later when when Frisk looked at the progress of the double Options and saw themself looking at them from the other side of the doubles.  It was as if they were looking in the mirror and after a confused moment they both started to laugh even though there was no sound.  First one then the other started wiggling their eyebrows at the other before the doubles slid past each other distorting their view of each other.  Weeks where your friends were unable to cross back over, when the crossing had slowed to a veritable standstill, but now the worst was over.  You rejoiced when you heard the news,  You hadn’t seen anyone for so long, you missed everyone, especially Sans.

When you looked at the calendar you saw Halloween creeping up on you, with barely two months to go and Papyrus’ costume to make still you were a little panicked.  At least that was the reason you told yourself, in complete honesty you were panicking at the anticipation of your new friends being ripped from you forever.  No matter how weird it got, or how confused you would sometimes find yourself they were a part of you now.  Slowly over the next month everyone started to gain more time back in their own world.  The speed of the correction felt as if some being was ripping the two worlds apart like a bandaid.  What took nearly half the year to reach it’s climax now was slipping away.  In an attempt to make sure your favorite holiday was one you would remember you convinced Frisk and the girls to help you plan a party.  The increasing randomness of the switches would mean you would have a chance to see everyone in one place so why shouldn’t you throw a party.  Cinnamom and Toriel insisted on hosting the party and you were surprised at how kind Cinnamom was once she let her guards down.  You hadn’t really made an effort to get to know her as you didn’t really spend a lot of time at Frisk’s house but from your observations she really was a Cinnamom.  She had slowly accepted all the monsters in both forms and even if she was a little harsher than Toriel you enjoyed her quick wit.  The only person you didn’t really get along with was King Teabeard, or King Chamomile if Frisk had their way.  Every time you saw him something close to fear crawled its way up your back, it wasn’t like he had ever done anything to you and he was nothing if not courteous when you spoke to him, but something in you shied away from being in the same room as him too long.  He held himself more regally than Asgore did and there was a darkness in his eyes that spoke of deeds best left unspoken.  

 

As the plans for the party were underway you found yourself suddenly with two costumes to put together.  Having heard of your willingness to assist Papyrus in his Captain America costume Edge had demanded you help him put together his Punisher costume. The soldier parallels weren’t lost on you and while you thought they were good choices it was still too meta, even for you.  And so October rolled around and you took their measurements and all the supplies to your mother, the only person you knew in the city who could sew.  In exchange for her help she had you complete chores around the house but you often found yourself being stolen away as each time Sans returned he found you immediately and took you somewhere quiet.  You never got a straight answer out of him as to how he always seemed to know where you were.  There the two of you usually sat together, his arms around you while he peppered your face and head in kisses.  He made you laugh with as many jokes and stories as he could almost as if he was trying to make up for all the pain he had caused you, but you weren’t complaining.  You would have sat in silence with him if you could, never moving.  You both made an effort to keep things as chaste as you could manage it, he expressed a very strong desire in keeping Red from having a chance to do anything.  Still there were plenty of awkward moments when he took Sans place and he always without fail either made increasingly dirty jokes before you realized it was him which caused you to smack at him in laughter or awkwardly pull away and look disgruntled.  You never knew which to expect as he wouldn’t tell you anything that was going on with him when he went home.  

The one good thing about the crossing skidding to a crawl and then peeling away was that Mettaton never had a chance to make good on his threat- er promise to get to know you.  Not only had he been gone too long and likely forgotten but when he returned you heard he had completely lost his mind at the state of his shows and personal life.  You had seen one of the other Mettaton’s take on his shows and found you rather enjoyed it, his humor was darker and you were able to appreciate the dramatic irony in his work a little more.  As far as you knew Mettaton’s ratings hadn’t been affected by the other version of himself but that didn’t seem to change his opinion on the whole situation.  After a long deliberation you told Alphys/Doc that they should probably invite the robotic monster to the party as long as he behaved himself, the party wasn’t about him after all.  From what you heard he was more than happy to attend, but you were sure they had toned down his actual reaction.  Frisk even managed to convince Flowey during one of his short stints in your world to attend the party, which he agreed to only if he could stay in a back room with lots of free food.  It was all coming together.

 

When the costumes were completed you took them to the boys’ apartment and left them there for Edge and Papyrus to find and were rewarded with high praise from both of them.  Even Edge asked you to extend his thanks to your mother which she received with a shrug and a smile.  She would do what she could to help you, even it meant just helping your friends.  The more your friends had time back in their world the more you heard about the other version of you you were pretty intrigued by her as it allowed you to see what kind of person you would have been if your life was different.  And there were plenty of differences, and yet still enough similarities that you weren’t sure if you would love or hate her if you ever met.  You had enough problems with yourself as it was.  The idea of your friends having some form of you to keep them company was in a way an odd relief, but it was also a thought that made you oddly jealous.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The more time Red spent back in his world the more his world’s ____ made good on her word.  She always seemed to know when he was back and thanks to Sans had gotten his phone number.  Not to mention that if he ever went to Grillby’s for a drink after his nightmares flared up she always managed to get there before he was even one drink in.  He swore Grillby was tipping her off.  But something he wouldn’t admit out loud was that when she huffed her way into the seat next to him he already felt better.  Her harsh words and snarky humor helped him forget for a moment what kind of person he was.  

She took his attitude and dirty humor in stride and eventually figured out exactly how to make him flustered instead.  And she relished it, he could see the absolutely wicked joy in her eyes every time he squirmed at something she said or did but no matter what she always reeled it back in the end with a soft laugh.  She quickly got in his brother’s good graces the day she scolded him for leaving his things and clothing all over the house.  He was a bit messier than Sans that was true, and he enjoyed making a mess for him to have to deal with later but even Sans’ ____ hadn’t bothered him about it, although he was pretty sure she cleaned up before Papyrus could find out.  

His world’s ____ never told him if she forgave him, and part of him hoped she never did because he never forgave himself; but he didn’t tell her that.  

 

Then came the moments when he swapped with Sans in the middle of an awkwardly romantic moment with the ____ from the other world.  The more it happened the more flustered he felt about it, almost like he was doing something he shouldn’t have been so he would try to cover it up with lewd comments or just tried to put some distance between them.  He mentioned it to his world’s ____ once and her eyes narrowed for a moment before she started laughing.  She had been imagining the look on his face she told him but when she thought he wasn’t looking her eyes narrowed again and her smile strained.  She took a decent amount of interest in the other version of herself and when Undyne informed her that the other ____ was helping plan a Halloween party she immediately jumped on board doing her best to copy the plans from the other side when anyone could bring them to her.  She was glad Sans had finally done something about his obvious feelings but it was so weird to think of some version of herself with him while at the same time she still had mixed emotions in regards to Red.  Although if it wasn’t for the relationship between Sans and his ____ she probably would never have gotten the courage to confront Red in the first place.  She had all but convinced herself that she had done something wrong that night, but when Sans started talking about his problems and how it affected his relationship with his ____ she had realized that Red probably had some very similar issues,  and she was nothing if not determined to finally get that weight off of her shoulders.  She eventually found that she enjoyed his company when she finally felt the fear and tension melt away.

The only problem was that there were still nights she woke up in a sweat, with her heart racing.  Red eyes glaring at her in the darkness of her mind and raw, red magic surrounding her.  Every time the dreams came and she felt fear paralyze her in her bed she wasn’t sure if she would ever be able to forgive him.  She never told Red about the nightmares she had because of him, or that the days she was short tempered was because of how she just couldn’t seem to get past what had happened.  No matter how hard she tried, how close she became to his friends, no matter how much she found herself enjoying his company, whenever his mood dropped and his eyes darkened her heart raced and she found herself swallowing past a panic induced lump.

 

Red began to notice the flashes of fear in his ____’s eyes the more time she spent with him.  He also saw how she turned away when it happened, her soul going deathly still in comparison to how it seemed to pulse when she was happy.  During those moments he goaded her with his quips and whether or not she realized what he was doing, she always recovered quickly.  There was one day about a week from the party when he slipped up and used his magic in front of her, she had been carrying a large box of supplies for the party when her foot caught on a crack in the sidewalk, his arms already full as he had been all but threatened into helping her he caught the box with his magic as she stumbled.  The red light bled into her eyes and her pupils dilated.  She started to hyperventilate.  The box fell when he realized what he had done, the ones he was holding crumpled slightly under his sudden death grip.  He fumbled with his words but she didn’t seem to hear him.  Putting his load down he walked to stand in front of her, keeping his distance.  Her face was red with tears unshed as she took calming breaths.  Finally she looked up at him, her face completely vulnerable for the first time.

“I’m not afraid of you, I’m afraid of what you could do.”  Her words, spoken with a shaking voice rocked through him.  He didn’t know why he was surprised to hear that, honestly it made sense. He turned away from her and went back to pick up his boxes and froze when he felt her hand on his arm.  “I...you need to believe me when I tell you that I don’t believe you would ever hurt me.  I trust you Sans, but after that night, after what you did...part of me may always be afraid of your magic.”  He knew she was having trouble getting her words across but he thought he understood no matter if it hurt to hear.  She squeezed his arm gently and picked up her box.  She knew that there wasn’t really a reason for her to be afraid but her body had reacted violently to seeing the smoke like red of his magic and it was all she could do to get her breathing under control and stop herself from shaking where she stood.

    After that day Red made sure he never used his visible magic around her if he could help it.

  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, the story feels like it's coming to it's close for me, but with this world I've built it's very plausible for me to do some shorts (or longs) with other AUs in this same universe. Or even to explore Red's world after this and see how that relationship is gonna go.
> 
> Let me know what you guys think.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have some Fluff! 
> 
> As promised, 2 jokes this time 
> 
> 1\. Why is Peter Pan always flying? (check the end notes for the answer.)
> 
> 2\. No matter how much you push the envelope it will still remain stationary.

Come the day of the party your friends were back to getting quite a few hours in their own worlds again, sometimes half a day, and the randomness of when they would switch made it harder for Flower Bud to leave your apartment.  Frisk tried desperately to get Flowey to meet the other versions of his parents but the last you heard of it was that “there was no way in hell he was going to meet ‘Assgore’ and open that can of worms”.  You had taken off of work for Halloween and luckily with the weekend tomorrow you were glad to be able to sleep in the next day. 

Lunch time rolled around and you donned your costume in preparation to go to lunch with the girls.  You had settled on a steam punk demon, pulling the pieces out of costumes long past.  The hardest item to locate was your leather lace up vest that hugged you nicely even if it was a bit short to be considered a tank top, but luckily it was perfectly designed for you to wear your harnessed wings with it.  Your knee high boots were a little scuffed but it fit with the worn pants and scuffed, fingerless gloves.  Your brother had bought you a short top hat years ago for christmas and you slid your tinted goggles down around the base of it tilting it on your head.  The wider than normal brim casting a shadow on your  red, kohl lined eyes.  This was the only time of year when you ever used your tinted contact lenses and you loved the red hue that peered back at you from the shadow of the hat.  You looked down at the amount of cleavage that was showing with your top and decided to wear your thrift store duster, it was getting pretty cool outside and honestly no matter how good this shirt made your assets look you weren’t going to freeze yourself out.  Pocketing your phone, wallet and keys you headed outside to wait for Undyne to pick you up, you had the rest of your costume in a large bag.  Flower Bud was already at Frisk’s hiding away and watching the setup for the party.

When you saw Undyne and Alphys you were rather impressed with their costumes, Alphys looked like she had decided to cosplay as someone from her favorite anime Mew Mew: Kissy Cutey or whatever it was, you tried to get into it for her sake but it never really pulled you in, you still liked to listen to her gush over it though.  She had so much passion about the things she liked, anime, science, Undyne.  Undyne looked like one of the most badass warriors that could have graced any anime, in the back seat sat what you hoped was giant prop sword.  All in all they honestly looked like the kind of characters from a show that would go on an epic adventure only to fall in love at the end.  Well, you guess they already had in some way.  You were curious about Die and Doc’s costumes but you suspected it would be rather similar.

The three of you stopped at a local diner for lunch and then ran a few final errands before the party.  You stopped at Muffet’s Bakery to pick up the cupcakes and then you stopped at the store to pick up giant bags of candy.  You and the girls buzzed with excitement at the eventful evening ahead.  You were pretty sure that Red and Sans weren’t going to dress up, more their loss you thought but it was a shame.  When you arrived at Frisk’s house you helped bring the goodies inside and then snuck Flowey’s/Flower Bud’s favorite cookies into the room for them, glad to see that Frisk had set up their laptop for them. 

 

 

That evening you were impressed with the number of monsters that arrived for the party and you were glad that Toriel had such a large house.  Before the party started you went back into the room where Flowey was busy watching his movies and put your wings on.  You slid the harness straps under your shirt, putting your duster in the bag instead and tightened the straps until your wings were flush against your back.  They were something you had ordered online once with your first bonus, they had just looked so cool, blood red and almost like bat wings, and the fact that you could rig them to stick out or hang folded against your back just gave you chills.  You never really wore them though, since your college friends had moved away your Halloweens had become simple costumes at work and then sitting at home with all the horror movies the internet could give you.  When you walked back out of the room Undyne took one look at your completed ensemble and yelled her approval.  

 

Grillby took one look at the drink selection and took over, almost as if he was affronted at what he saw.  You weren’t sure if the indigo fire monster would keep up the effort when he switched in but at least you were able to get a couple of good drinks in you before you had to find out.  Sans hadn’t been back yet today and you weren’t sure if Red had shown up yet but you heard Papyrus in the main room, showing off his costume with great zest.  Bubbling with energy you headed out to the main part of the house and was quickly pulled into the fray.  Your friends loved your costume and they were surprisingly gentle as they stretched your wings out from your back and let them fall back into place.  Boney fingers brushed against the exposed skin on your hip and your spun around expecting to see Sans.  

Red smirked at your fallen face and then laughed when you shoved him away. “looking good sweetheart.”  He looked at your red irises shining with mirth from within the shadows of your hat with approval, his smile stretching across his face.  It was a good look on you he decided.  

“I see you didn’t dress up, lazy bones.”  He shrugged in response but noticed his shifty expression.  “Red?”  you crossed your arms. 

“alright, she wouldn't let me be at the party without a costume so she made me wear this.” He pulled a beanie out of his coat pocket and put it on, it looked pretty nondescript until he rolled it down over his face.  It was a fucking Deadpool mask beanie.  Laughter erupted from you as he rolled it back up.

“Why on this blue earth would you be embarrassed of that?”  he just looked away, truth be told he had never been given anything before and it had made him feel, well, weird.  “Aw man, I shoulda gotten something for Sans, I'm being one upped by myself.”  Still chuckling to yourself you wandered away into the crowd looking for more of your friends.

 

All in all you would call this party an unequivocal success.  Even both Mettatons behaved themselves, for the most part.  Frisk was having the time of their lives but you could tell there was an atmosphere, an overhanging weight that seemed to surround the house.  Everyone was beginning to regret the impending separation, maybe that was why everyone was trying so hard to have a good time.  As the night drug on and the energy began to peter out you headed back through the kitchen to Flowey’s room to remove your wings.  You felt them shift on your back as if someone had stretched them all the way out, luckily you were in the kitchen so there was enough room for you to turn around, when you did they slowly closed themselves and you noticed a fading glow of blue trail behind them.  Sans was looking at you in awe.  You tilted your hat back from your eyes so you could see him properly, a smile spreading over your face.

“Well hello to you too.” You raised an eyebrow at his normal outfit, “I see you didn’t dress up either.”  That got his attention, though his eyes remained glued to yours.

“i did, i’m a stand up comedian, looks just like everyone else.”  He tilted his head, “you look amazing.”  

“That’s not a very good joke,” you teased.

“i wasn’t joking,” he stepped up to you and slid your hat off of your head, his forearm resting on your shoulder.  You could feel the heat radiating off of your face at his proximity, your smile faltering at the surge of emotions and the feeling of his free hand sliding along the bare skin of your lower back. Fuck it.  You raised your right hand and pulled his face towards yours.  He didn’t really have lips, his mouth was malleable enough for him to move it as if he had lips though and wasn’t as firm as you expected.  Sans felt his magic surge through him as he watched your red tinted eyes shut before he closed his own eyes.  Your soul pulsed in time with your racing heart.  It was so odd, the tingling you felt from the kiss as if his magic was leaking into the contact of skin and bone.  His teeth grazed against your bottom lip and your lips parted in a small gasp, you weren’t breathing properly and you honestly weren’t sure you would be able to keep standing.  There were too many feelings and sensations coursing through you, he was literally rendering you weak at the knees.  Something slick slid across your parted lips where he had grazed you and you realized it was his tongue.  He deepened the kiss and you parted your lips further granting him entrance, the closest you could compare the sensation of the magically composed appendage was dull pop rocks, the magic leaking off of him tingled so much.  Of course you knew he had a tongue, Red made that perfectly clear a while ago when he tried to push your buttons.  

Your hands grasped at his jacket, anchoring yourself so you didn’t fall. Through your kiss drunk haze you heard someone enter the kitchen and then after a moment walk back out.  Pulling back from Sans you opened your eyes and found you had to squint through the amount of glowing blue light spilling from his cheeks.  Your skin was burning and you were breathless, his eyes were lidded with so many emotions you felt giddy, a breathy laugh escaped you.  Sans slid his hand from the small of your back along the skin of your side, a trail of tingling fire followed his touch and you shivered.  His smile widened and his eyes flashed brighter.  When you stepped back from him you stumbled, you really were having trouble staying on your feet, how long did that kiss last?  Why did you even stop it?  He caught you and put your hat back on your head, then he nuzzled his face into your neck, muffling his laughter.  Sans didn’t think he could ever feel happier than right now.  A moment later both of your phones buzzed.  Frisk had taken a picture and set it to you, you covered your mouth and then looked over at Sans, he had gotten the same text.  He had already made it his phone background and he had a wicked smile on his face that made your heart flip.   _ Oh dear.  _  Heart still racing you told him to wait for a moment and you left to remove the burden from your back, the weight of your wings pulling on you.  

 

“What’s wrong with your face.”

“It’s called a smile, you should try it sometimes.”  Flowey grumbled and turned away, you hadn't taken the bait.  Instant relief as the tension in your shoulders seeped away.  You twisted and you felt your spine pop, there it was.  You stowed them back in their bag and put your duster back on, your skin was suddenly too cool after being overheated a moment before.  Sans was lounging against a counter when you returned, blissfully lost in his memory of your kiss.  He looked up when you entered the room and pushed off of the counter.

“Come on lover boy, we don't want to have people come looking for us.” You saw him raise a brow and seemingly decided against saying something.  You knew exactly what he would have said because you knew exactly what Red would have said. Interesting.  He shoved his hands in his pockets and you laced your arm around his.

“so…”

“Hmm?”

“what's up with the wings?” 

“Oh. I bought them one year cause they looked cool, always thought it would be cool to have wings, to fly. Plus I just feel like a badass wearing them.” your free hand danced through the air as you spoke.  Sans hummed thoughtfully to himself.  Your mouth still tingled from the kiss and when you thought about it your face heated back up. His eyes drifted over to your face and his smile hinted at the wicked mischievous one you saw earlier.  He knew exactly what you were thinking about, you winked at him. He blushed. Ha! He was still just your Sans in the end.

 

The party didn't last much long after that and by the end of it when you headed back to collect your things you walked in on Frisk having a heated discussion with Flowey.

“Why won't you just meet them? You don't even have to tell them who you are!”

“You know why!”

“But we already have proof that it will be ok Flowey.”

“That sniveling weed didn't do half the shit I did, you don't have anything!”

“Do you really think they would care? They miss you Az.”  You heard Flowey growl in response and you pushed the door open looking at them curiously.  Frisk gave you an imploring look. Internally you groaned and picked up your stuff, but you had such a hard time saying no to Frisk. 

“Hey small fry, you wanna tell me what's keeping you from at least talking to them?”  more glares.  “Ookaay, what would it take for you to just give it a shot?  Just so Frisk is happy?” 

“No!” 

“Please?”

“What part of of NO-”

“Fine, I tried. Sorry kid.” Frisk just shrugged.  “You gonna head back to the apartment then or do I gotta carry your stubborn ass?”  he sat in silence for a moment, looking at the door to the room and then turned away. 

“I'm going back to the Underground.”  You could hear the sad undertone in his voice but he was already gone.  You looked at Frisk with narrowed eyes.

“So you wanna tell me now what his deal is?”  you heard Toriel call for Frisk.

“Next time,” they ran off, a look of relief on their face.  Saved by the mom.  Grumbling to yourself you followed them out and looked for Sans so he could take you home.  It was already pretty late and you were feeling it in your limbs and shoulders.  He was sitting with Toriel who was obviously drunk, he had his face in his hands blushing ridiculously brightly.  Toriel was laughing as if she had told a wonderful joke.  Frisk sat by her feet smirking at Sans.  You assumed Edge had already left with Die and Alphys.  

“Hey Tori, thanks for hosting the party.” You yawned and surveyed the mess left behind and grimaced. “Hey uh, if you want I can come over tomorrow to help with uh, alla this.”  Sans grinned up at you and stood up, his face was still an adorable shade of blue.  For someone who loved sleep as much as he did he didn't look nearly exhausted as you felt.  Toriel looked over at you still giggling, “Oh it's fine, Frisk can help me with it tomorrow.” Frisk gave you a look and you pretended to look down to untwist the handles of your bag, you had a feeling they were going to try to  wrangle you into helping regardless.  You felt arms wrap around your waist, Sans pulled you closer to him as you waved goodbye to Toriel and Frisk, Toriel winked at Sans who buried his face against your neck with a groan and then you were in your apartment.  Reluctantly Sans released you and you put your things down, placing your hat on the table. Your eyes  were screaming for relief from the contacts so you headed to the bathroom to remove them, he sat on the arm of the couch watching you intently he hadn’t ever really seen how contacts were put in or removed before.  It took you a few tries but finally you had them both removed, the whites of your eyes red from the effort.  Then you removed your eye makeup and went back out to Sans.   You sat towards the middle of the couch and pulled him backwards off of the arm, his legs draped over arm of the couch.  It felt good to sit down, it felt amazing to not have to work the next day.  He looked up at you, his fingers stroking the skin on your arm.  You loved the cooler feel of his bones against your warm skin, your eyes slid closed you didn’t want to get up but you felt gross and desperately craved a scalding hot shower to ease your shoulder muscles.  A minute passed and then another, he was lulling you to sleep with his touch whether he knew it or not.  

Sans laid back onto your lap, scooting back against the arm so his head was in your lap and his legs were hanging further off the arm of the couch, he closed his own eyes.  In your half-sleep state you’re body jumped violently forcing you awake, it had felt like you were falling or on a roller-coaster.  You experienced that a lot, especially when you weren’t sleeping in bed but for once you were glad of it as you hadn’t wanted to go to sleep yet.  Sans had flinched, startled at the violent movement.

“you ok?”

“Yea, just weird sleep stuff, it happens all the time.  I was told once that I twitch in my sleep too sometimes, not sure why...uhh hey,” you swallowed suddenly unsure, “you could stay here y’know I mean not that I want to - or y’know and with Red... but it’d be nice to have you here.”  With his head on your lap you couldn’t really fidget much so you just pulled at a part of his jacket.  Blue light flooded his cheeks.

“yes,” he said, almost too quickly.  Giddy all over again you leaned down and kissed him on the forehead. “what about the angry little weed though?”

“He went back under the mountain. But umm I need to go shower and you smell like booze and ketchup so you need to shower too.  I don’t exactly have anything here you can wear so you’re gonna need to run home ok?”  He nodded and tried to sit up but the position he was in wasn’t very conducive to ease of movement and he ended up just rolling off of the couch.  Climbing to his feet he pulled you up to stand and kissed you briefly before leaving.

 

You took a long, hot shower, revelling in how relaxed your body felt afterwards.  You tried not to think about anything sad, after all you had fun tonight and Sans was staying over, well for as long as he was in this world, and sad things were for future you to worry about.  When you got out of the shower you realized you had forgotten your clothes on your bed and wrapped your towel around you to head out to your room.  Sans was sitting on the couch he turned his head towards the bathroom when he heard it open and froze in place.  Your skin was still damp and your hair was standing in all sorts of directions but that didn’t stop his face from heating up with magic or for his mind to turn to other things as he noticed how small the towel you had really was. 

“SANS!” He jumped and looked away.  Quickly you walked to your room and closed the door flopping against your bed.  Maybe you should be more mindful of taking your things to the bathroom, on the other hand he had gotten very flustered and you found you enjoyed seeing that expression on his face.  You got dressed smiling and put your towel back in the bathroom, you combed your hair and then went back to the couch.  Sans had resolutely looked away when you left the bedroom and was feigning complete absorption into whichever late night tv show he had turned on.  You wished you could ask him to stay beside you in your bed but with Red still making appearances you knew that wasn’t going to happen.  For one of the few times in his life he wasn’t wearing his jacket, actually he had on loose pyjama pants patterned with bones and a black tshirt.  His bones stood out in stark contrast against his shirt, you found you liked this outfit and told him so.  Without his jacket to cushion his bones he pulled the throw blanket down from the back of the couch for you so you could lean against him easier.  Part of you ached for bed, you really wanted to lay down but you knew you’d fall asleep as soon as you did.  So you dozed against him until he convinced you to go to bed, well convinced you by kissing you awake until you agreed.  You kept your door open when you went to bed, you knew he could see you from the couch thanks to the setup of your room but that meant you could see him, and you fell asleep looking out at him as he watched tv in the dark, his cheeks a soft blue the entire time.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

After his ____ graced him with the beanie, Red had found himself back in San’s world.  He was still thinking about her costume, she had said she was a fallen angel, black feathered wings on her back that looked like the tips had been dipped in blood and a simple white dress.  He was impressed, she had looked incredible and when he saw the red contacts in her eyes he was floored.  God he loved that color on her but when she turned a smirk on him and handed him the hat he had gotten flustered, and before he could respond he was gone.  Then the other ____ was there with her red contacts, her bare midriff and her large, red wings, as complicated a costume as his ____’s was simple.  He assumed right then and there that both he and Sans were doomed.  Despite that he had fun at the party, seeing everyone together from both worlds it was impressive and while he wouldn’t say it to him out loud he knew Edge was having fun too.  He knew the crossing was going to end soon but he wasn’t willing to think about what that meant for him, for all the people he would lose.  So he drank, at least at a party no one could get mad at him for it.  

Then sometime late into the party he found himself back in his world sitting next to Papyrus who was enthusiastically talking about his costume with Undyne.  He got up to find the food, and maybe more alcohol but before he made it halfway to the kitchen ____ stood in front of him, her wings already removed, angry red lines marked into her shoulders where the straps had been.  

“I’m glad you’re wearing it,” she gestured to the top of his head.  He had actually forgotten he was wearing the thing so he just shrugged with a lazy grin, his gold tooth glinting in the light.  She rubbed her arms and looked up at his face as if searching for something, then she nodded.  “Alright then.”  She walked off to talk to Undyne and Papyrus.  Confused he looked after her, she was cold he noticed, he didn’t know why he noticed.  He turned back towards the kitchen, then spun around and walked back over to where ____ now stood.  He threw his jacket at her head and then left back towards the kitchen.  

 

He found himself in the other  ____’s apartment on the couch, laying under a blanket with the tv set to a low murmur.  Looking around he noticed that ____ was sleeping in her bed holding an extra pillow in her arms and curled into a ball.  He shook his head, he wasn’t going to miss finding himself in the wrong world, hell he wouldn’t even have missed any part of this if it hadn’t been for her.  But he  _ had _ met her, he was going to miss her and because of that he was going to miss the rest of the people he had met here.  Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, this Frisk, everyone he had gotten to know over the last few months.  The universe was certainly cruel.  He had it figured that at the speed of things now this was going to end in a couple of weeks, maybe even sooner.  He wondered if Sans had told his ____ this, he wondered if she had guessed it and that’s why she was so dead set on the party.  He hated goodbye’s. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. He Neverlands
> 
>  
> 
> So I'm not 100% happy with this chapter, loved the fluff and all but I just can't put my finger on it. Not to worry I'm giving you the end to this part all at once split between chapters.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't trust atoms. They make up everything.

The night you had asked Sans to stay with you, the night of the Halloween party was the beginning of a rapid final spurt of the crossing.  Over the next week you saw your new friends less and less, they would maybe get half an hour to an hour by the end of the week.  Your heart was breaking.  You spent all of your free time with your friends just hoping to catch them during a swap.  You needed to say goodbye, you didn’t want to say goodbye but you needed to.  Die wouldn’t hear of it, she refused to accept it as goodbye.  She was actually a pretty emotional person when faced with losing a friend and so she didn’t want to believe she was losing anyone.  You both knew that you would never see each other again though.  Doc was a little easier to say goodbye too, she kept herself pretty much to herself most of the time, but this was the one time she showed she actually cared.  She hugged you, tightly and that was it.  Edge was as stoic as always, you could see it in his face though that he wasn’t happy about saying goodbye and when you hugged him he found he was at a loss for words.  Despite there being a version of you in his world it didn’t do anything to dampen the loss.  The rest of your goodbyes went pretty similar, as did the ones your friends made to each other.  The one’s from your world to the one’s from the other.  You heard from Undyne that it had been just as difficult for her to say goodbye to the other you, you wondered if the other you was hurting as much as you were now to say good bye.

Papyrus was devastated when he finally accepted that he wasn’t going to see the other you, or Die or Red again.  You ended up consoling him for an hour after he made his goodbyes until Sans was able to take over.  You even got to say goodbye to Flower Bud.  Flowey had returned a few days after the party, he never apologized and you didn’t pester him about it.  You knew you would need to make arrangements for him so he had somewhere to stay but you were already so upset over the impending losses that you couldn’t bring yourself to do anything about it at the moment.  Flower Bud cried when you said goodbye and that did nothing for your resolve after that.  When your friends from college had moved away it had hurt, but you knew that they were still reachable, this was almost as if your friends were dying.  You knew somewhere in the vast unknown of the multiverse they were alive, but you knew you would never see them again and there was no amount of magic or science that could fix that.

 

Then you said goodbye to Red.  The most arrogant of all your new friends and yet the one you had grown the closest too.  All his quips, dirty jokes, sarcastic attitude, everything that he did to try and annoy you, you were going to miss.  You hoped, ridiculously hard that the other you, the one in his world, would take care of him and keep him from sinking back into that place you glimpsed the night he was drunk.  You hoped that the other you would be as good a friend to them as she could be because you believed that if you needed your friends then she would need hers.  The last time you saw Red you were walking with Sans from work.  

“hey sweetheart.”  You looked up into his smiling face and smiled in return, your smile faltering at the sad look in his eyes.  Your own eyes heated up and threatened to spill over.  

“R-Red, I…” your voice broke.

“i know.”  He pulled you into a hug, the smell of mustard filling your nose, you were never going to be able to smell mustard again without hurting a little.  

“It hurts Red.”

“yea.”

“I’m going to miss you, god you were such an ass and I’m still going to miss you so much.”  He chuckled, it was almost comforting.

“i’m going to miss you too, sweetheart… it’s funny, in a way.  it almost feels like this was a complete accident but i’m not mad that it happened.”  

“Still sucks.”

“i know, i mean in the end we knew this was gonna happen.  really, we were just passing through.”  You sniffled and pulled away, he stuffed his hands into his pockets.  After a moment of looking down at your feet he pulled you back towards the direction you were waking with Sans. “take care of him, yea?”

“I will, take care of her ok?”  His arm was wrapped around your shoulder steering you as you cried so you felt more than heard his assent.  After a few more minutes of walking like that he was gone and Sans found himself trying to comfort you as you cried uncontrollably in his arms.  

 

That was the last time you saw any of them.  Frisk later confirmed that the crossing was completely gone but the emptiness in your heart ached in response to the news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok I made myself cry. 
> 
> But this isn't the end of the story for our favorite boneheads and their readers. I have plans for Red and his reader, they will get their own non multiverse fic so we can see how that plays out. As for Sans and his reader well I have some dirty fillers in mind as well as many more multiverse crossing fics (of indeterminable length) now that I've started their story. I will make them into a series so there will be continuity, some of them won't be very good for our reader's mental health and I can't guarantee an official ending to the whole escaped but I hope to go as far as I can. I also plan to work out the Flowey bit in the future. So lots of goodies to look forward to I hope. 
> 
> On that note I also won't be posting everyday like I did with this fic but I don't plan to let it die away just yet. 
> 
> Sorry again for the shortness of how it ended. <3


	12. NEW WORKS IN SERIES

Hey all you beautiful people!  I figured an update here would let you know what's going on.  Red and his Reader's story has started, it's called Red Light.  It can be found in this series.  Hope you enjoy!


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